RustyShackle

I live in a moderate pacific climate with temps rarely below 0 C. On cold days in the past few years where my windshield is fogged it seems to take a long time to get sufficient heat to the cabin (5+ min). As soon as I start driving the heat ramps up very quickly.

From what I understand the culprits could be gummed up heater core or head gasket. The vehicle has only been serviced with OEM coolant.

Is there a process to get cabin heat quicker?

ezone

Thermostat not stuck open, not opening too soon or at too low of a temperature?

Radiator completely full to the top and system completely burped of trapped air? Do that first, hope your heater should return to normal until the problem comes back again. If this helps at least you'll know it's not clogged.

No head gasket issue? 1.7 engine is KNOWN for it. Lousy heat is one of the symptoms of low coolant/airock/head gasket.

NDNV

X2 on checking the head gasket. Also make sure your A/C is working too.


Once I repaired both of these on my 03 EL, the heat output from the heater is back to normal. Once up to operating temp now and set to high heat, I cannot comfortably hold my hand in front of vent too long from the high heat.

5.0Thunder

Prob a head gasket. This forum section gets new threads nearly daily about issues that lead to head gasket failure. lol It seems like a small percentage of these cars DON'T have this issue. :P

SlowboyZ

I have 185,000 miles on mine and still no issue

mikey1

310,000kms here, no issues

::knock on wood::

ezone

Not all of them do it.
Plenty of them do.
People who can't figure it out (or refuse to believe it) are the ones who post about it.

RustyShackle

I have had this issue for at least the last 2 years which is why I think if it was leaking head gasket it would have materialized into burning coolant and overheating by now. A/C works fine.

The only other evidence I have for the possibility of a small head gasket failure is that my coolant overflow tends to fluctuate higher than normal in hot weather - but that is kind of normal I think.

Never had any evidence of losing coolant and have never observed the engine temp exceed normal operating temperature.

I know ezone and everyone else here gets excited when people try to rationalize that their HG is not leaking LOL but I genuinely think that my thermostat may be stuck open.

Anyone have some approximate numbers for long should it take for a D17A2 to reach operating temperature? I realize this is dependent on the ambient temperature but any guesses are appreciated.

ezone

That was the first line of my initial reply.

Remove radiator cap (COLD ENGINE) and start the engine, see if liquid is visibly circulating after the engine starts. It may move a little and rise as the engine heats up, but it shouldn't be flowing rapidly right off the bat.

If the level is completely full it may be hard to tell if liquid is circulating. You may need to remove a little bit so you can see fluid move past the bottom of the filler neck.

It will vary greatly depending on load.
Use of the heater will cause the time to vary quite a bit too.

Got a scanner/scangauge/app of any sort that will let you see live operating data from the PCM? Watch the ECT as you drive.

RustyShackle

I did not know you can visually observe the coolant circulating through the rad cap.

I will check on that tomorrow.

ezone

It may or may not tell you much. If the stat is stuck wide open you should be able to see circulation. If it's minor or opens too early, you may not see anything.

RustyShackle

I figure I will resurrect this thread - I wasn't able to tell anything looking into the rad.

Another related question I have been pondering

In most circumstances is it more efficient to get cabin heat by letting the coolant warm up before turning on the blower motor?

I have been simply maxing the blower to defrost upon startup.

ezone

Absolutely.
Unless you really need to clear the windshield, don't.
Whenever possible, wait til the temp gauge is climbing before you turn the fan on.
If you must, try it on the absolute lowest fan speed until you feel some heat from the vents, then start increasing fan speed as it gets warmer..

If you have a way to read live engine data, you can probably watch the coolant temp drop quite a bit after turning the heater fan on high.
I know I watch my car do this every dang morning it's cold out (ultragauge).

Stock 99

I usually start my car and scrape the outside windows with it idling and the blower fan off (about 5 min) then drive another 5 minutes without the fan on to reach operating temp.... and start the blower fan. There's also a large hill that I drive down and my car can be at normal operating temperature and by half way down if the blower fan is running the temperature gauge returns almost right back to cold if I don't turn it off. Colder temperatures then 0c but you can't expect a lot from a 1.7 l engine in this respect.

guitarsnlikker

233K miles here. no issue.