3.4 Heater Help

[1SL1k30thCam]

Heater is not working in my girlrfriends 3.4L. Thermo is fine, so must be the heater core right? Ive heard they can become clogged or something and I could fix this. How would I go about doing this? Where is everything located. Any light shed on this cold issue would be appreciated.

[1SL1k30thCam]

Re: 3.4 Heater Help

Blldgg where u at :p

[BLLDOGG]

Re: 3.4 Heater Help

what doesn't work? Does it not blow air or is the air not warm? look in your manual, that you should have to be on this site, ;) it should have pics of the hoses you can take off on the firewall to flush.

[1SL1k30thCam]

Re: 3.4 Heater Help

Just blows cold. WOuld help if we had the manual for it....not with the car. I have MY manual but no help there im 3.8

[BLLDOGG]

Re: 3.4 Heater Help

the manual goes from 93-02 doesn't it?

anyways, I'n not too familiar with the engine bay, a pic from the internet would be great, but you should see two hoses next to each other going into the firewall around the passenger side. they should either have some type of connector or a clamp holding them on. if they go straight threw with no connection, follow the lines towars the engine until you find one. unhook the lines, fill with warm water until it is coming out of both lines, and blow as hard as you can into one of the lines. If you have a compressor, you in luck. use a blow gun but do not let all the pressure build up in the lines. lightly hold the gun onto the line allowing some back flow to come out. have the other line in a clear bottle so you can see if anything is coming out and if so, when it stops. repeat for other side until all foreign matter is gone. you might be able to go to autozone and get a flush kit to help but i dont know fi they have one for a heater core or what you could rig up. I hope this helps some.

[Nikos95]

Re: 3.4 Heater Help

Heh just be careful also, after you flush it, might be a good idea to check the passenger floor to make sure you don't have a leak in your core also. I flushed one out once and then found a leak after, problem being I found out when I was about 20 miles out of town and temp gauge was starting to fly up... So just take a look before you go running off with the car running.

[BLLDOGG]

Re: 3.4 Heater Help

so your core was leaking?

[Nikos95]

Re: 3.4 Heater Help

so your core was leaking?

Well it was clogged up, but after I flushed it out it started to leak. So I am guessing it had a really weak spot, or the clog was simply stopping it from leaking obviously because it wasn't getting through. It had a t off for a bypass from the previous owner.

[mtcrss2006]

Re: 3.4 Heater Help

I just got mine done.... A good check would be to find both hoses going into the firewall (to the heater core). Then start the cold engine. As it warms up, one of the hoses (I think its the one on the left as u look at the firewall) should get warm...thats the hot coolant going to the heater core. If the one coming out stays ambient temp or just slightly warmer, the core is clogged.

Mine was bad so I took it in to get a backflush (Highly Recommend over "fluid exchange"!)... The mechanic said the flusher couldn't unclog it so he tried adding a water hose, then that wasn't enough so he took an air compressor to it and ...BAM! He showed me the chunks of rust about 1/2 the size of a golf ball that came out! My dad told me that antifreeze gets acidic when it goes bad so it starts to eat at the metal in the radiator or heater core... and that it can even eat through the plugs in the heater core if left alone too long, so that can cause leaks into your car....

My .02

[Nikos95]

Re: 3.4 Heater Help

I just got mine done.... A good check would be to find both hoses going into the firewall (to the heater core). Then start the cold engine. As it warms up, one of the hoses (I think its the one on the left as u look at the firewall) should get warm...thats the hot coolant going to the heater core. If the one coming out stays ambient temp or just slightly warmer, the core is clogged.

Mine was bad so I took it in to get a backflush (Highly Recommend over "fluid exchange"!)... The mechanic said the flusher couldn't unclog it so he tried adding a water hose, then that wasn't enough so he took an air compressor to it and ...BAM! He showed me the chunks of rust about 1/2 the size of a golf ball that came out! My dad told me that antifreeze gets acidic when it goes bad so it starts to eat at the metal in the radiator or heater core... and that it can even eat through the plugs in the heater core if left alone too long, so that can cause leaks into your car....

My .02

Thats how we did the truck, and the pressure may have burst a weak spot in the core on me.