Fixed my heater, finally. Wow, this thing works.

[ditch68]

I have popped into a couple recent posts where people have been experiencing heater issues and commented, since I had some similar issues and had a hell of a time tracking it down.

My symptoms: At first, no heat at all. It turned out there were some disconnected vacuum lines, the most important being the one which controlled the valve. Now, oddly, it did not blow heat all the time. Not sure why, but I corrected that issue. It then would blow hot air just as you turned the temp knob all the way right. Then it would just fade into luke warm, then the same as ambient cabin temp.

My steps were fairly through,and I used the search function liberally. I first off performed at least 3 by the book complete coolant system bleeds. Then moved on to check hoses, and check the solenoids on the HVAC unit, and all the associated lines. All seemed good. I visually confirmed positive commanded operation of the valve. OK. At this point I suspected the thermostat unit was just not functioning properly, or the interior temp sensor. Per good advice (French toast?) I went to disconnect that sensor to see if it defaulted to hot.

HOWEVER, something in the back of my mind said look at all those vacuum lines just one more time. So I did. What did I find, but the rubber connector that attched the hard plastic vacuum line to the vacuum storage cannister was cut or split. It is soft, but had a big cut!

I replaced this, and I am happy to say my heater system now functions perfectly. It seems the vaccum was bleeding down causing the slow drop in temp as the valve closed. Now that thing will cook me out of the car if I want it to.

It pays to be thorough. I just thought I should let everyone know my symtoms and resolution so if a future search is done, someone may actually get an answer rather than just a description of failed attempts!

Thanks once again, Pelican!

Jeff