Heater died!

[Dagoose]

I have a Tj and the heater just died the other day. Where do I go to trouble shoot?

There is no coolant leaking, nor can I smell any coolant in the jeep. I just flushed the coolant last month and drove to Revelstoke and back with no problems (thankfully).

The temperature gauge is reading a normal temperature, but very little heat is coming out. The blower works fine, but only a little bit of heat comes out at the second click. When I turn the heat up, only cold. This has never happened before and the heater has always worked fine.

Is this the heater core?

Thanks

[murray195]

I went through the same thing when I had an air pocket in my cooling system. Operating temp seemed normal, coolant level seemed normal. but after having it running with the rad cap off and squeezing the upper and lower rad hoses and shaking the heater core lines, a pocket of air worked it's way up and my level dropped around half a litre at least. Topped it up, and the heat has been great ever since. The fact that you just flushed the coolant last months makes me wonder if air in the lines accumulated into one big pocket. Just a thought.

[FiEND]

checked your coolant level?
you need to check the temperature of the heater hoses to see if the heater core is clogged

check your vent doors and heater controls if they are all working correctly.  check for heat at all settings.

regardless of temp gauge sitting at the half way mark, mine wouldn't blow much heat on the highway, it would lose more than it could create.  a flush helped a lot but i know my core is not nearly as good as a new one would be.

[murray195]

Also, putting your heater on full blast when you're getting air out of the lines makes the job a lot easier if you do in fact have some air in the lines. I brain fart sometimes and forget to do it.

[Dagoose]

Thanks both of you.

I made sure that there were no bubbles before my 10 hour trip and I had heat the entire time. I'll check the coolant again tomorrow.

I'm really hoping this is just an air bubble or another easy fix and not something more serious.