Heater Needs To Be Hotter

sorry I don't have any advice... coz I'm still using my A/C down here in FL... even at night...

I'll give that try with the recirculate tonight on my way home. See if it makes much of a difference, thanks for the info.

winter++

summer--

I hate the heat. I'm VERY happy that I don't live in FL. -cough, we know how to vote/count votes here-

1996 Geo Prizm. 180k miles.

The past few weeks have been darn cold. Dipping into the double/single digits in the evenings here in SLC, UT. Heater works fine, but takes some time for it to start blowing warming air. Atleast 5 minutes. Any ways of speeding up this process. I changed my radiator fluid last week hoping it would make a difference. Seems like it may have made a difference, but not much. Might be all mental and I'm just thinking that. Car heats up to the normal level. Another thing is that it doesn't blow nice HOT air. Blows really really warm air. But I wouldn't say that it's hot. Even after a good solid 30 minutes of driving on the freeway. Any ideas?

My Corolla never bows really hot air and it takes many minutes to heat up in single digit temps when I don't turn on the recirculate function. When I do it heats up in 2 or 3 minutes and it blows air so hot that I have to turn the heat down.

Try turning your recirculate when you first start the car and leaving it on for 20 or so minutes. By that time it will have had time to warm the interior to the point where you won't want it on anymore.

If this doesn't work for you, you probably have a stuck blend door. The blend door is what mixes cooler and warmer air in order to make air the temperature you've set on the dial. If it is stuck in a partially open position, or even if there is an obstruction that keeps it from closing fully, then you will never get hot air. The blend door is buried under your dash and unless you are handy enough to take the dash apart and find the door and figure out what is wrong with it, I'd take it to a mechanic.

-the99contour

The heater in my car works great. It takes about 3 minutes to warm up the engine after the car is started and when I turn on the heater it gets so hot that I have to turn it down. That is in 30 degree temperatures.

My hvac in my Prizm is messed up also. Low and medium do not work so all I have if off or high.

Hmm - sounds like a blower resistor got burned up. Was helping a friend with his car (Chevy) - did the same thing. No heat at all on the lower two settings, only worked on full blast - turned out to be a bad resistor pack (a couple of bucks at the dealer parts counter).

Anyone who's answering Bike, please also give the resistor pack location for the "o3 and later Corollas as well. I'm thinking of getting a spare one and keeping it up my sleeve in case the original blows. It's very annoying to have no ability to reduce your HVAC fan speeds -- I lived with that situation in a work vehicle for months until I threatened my boss I'd quit if he didn't fix it -- and the broken cruise control. This was on a '96 Plymouth Voyager being used as an airport shuttle van.

Hmm - sounds like a blower resistor got burned up. Was helping a friend with his car (Chevy) - did the same thing. No heat at all on the lower two settings, only worked on full blast - turned out to be a bad resistor pack (a couple of bucks at the dealer parts counter).

Is the resistor pack located behind the control knob in the dash?

 

On my 98, the resistor was located on the inside of the vehicle behind the glove box area. If you put your head in the passenger foot area and look up, you can see a wire connector and two screws on the bottom of the duct coming in from the fan. It takes about 15 min to replace and was around $30 from the dealer.

Hmm - sounds like a blower resistor got burned up. Was helping a friend with his car (Chevy) - did the same thing. No heat at all on the lower two settings, only worked on full blast - turned out to be a bad resistor pack (a couple of bucks at the dealer parts counter).

Is the resistor pack located behind the control knob in the dash?

 

On my 98, the resistor was located on the inside of the vehicle behind the glove box area. If you put your head in the passenger foot area and look up, you can see a wire connector and two screws on the bottom of the duct coming in from the fan. It takes about 15 min to replace and was around $30 from the dealer.

I think I have seen it.

Is the resister pack connected to the heater temperature control with a rod?I think I have seen it.

No, the temp knob is connected to the blend door with a rod, and it is the blend door which mixes hot and cold air to make air that is the desired temperature. The blower resistor is connected to the fan speed knob. That knob is not mechanical like the temp knob, but electronic. When you turn the fan speed knob, you are causing power to flow through different resistors in the resistor pack and the different amounts of current resulting from this cause the fan to blower either faster or slower.

-the99contour

Also (not part of controls, but does affect A/C and heat), make sure you have proper amount of engine coolant, proper volume of refrigerant, proper drive belt tension, good relays, fuses and wires, and vacuum lines.

I don't know as my car is fairly new, but in all my older cars I had three choices (temperatures) of thermostats to choose from. I don't even know what the Corolla uses, but twice a year, I would take out the two housing bolts and throw in a different thermostat...one for summer and one for winter. The difference was that one would open and let the coolant do its job either sooner or later.

Does anyone know what the '05 Corolla uses as I haven't thought of it yet. It used to be 195/185/or 175 degrees.

If your car isn't putting out enough heat, then the thermostat may be partly stuck open (better than stuck closed).

I don't know as my car is fairly new, but in all my older cars I had three choices (temperatures) of thermostats to choose from. I don't even know what the Corolla uses, but twice a year, I would take out the two housing bolts and throw in a different thermostat...one for summer and one for winter. The difference was that one would open and let the coolant do its job either sooner or later. Does anyone know what the '05 Corolla uses as I haven't thought of it yet. It used to be 195/185/or 175 degrees.

 

If your car isn't putting out enough heat, then the thermostat may be partly stuck open (better than stuck closed).

Thermostats can be changed to open sooner, if needed. The one for my car is supposed to open at 80-84 degrees Celcius (176-183 degrees Farenheit).