Losing Heat?

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shreksbrother

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My 2012 is having a problem. It'll get to operating temp from cold, but little to no heat. Once I drive, I'll start getting some heat, but the temp comes way down, and then I largely lose heat (lukewarm). After reading your thread, I replaced the thermostat (which was fully closed when I pulled it) with no change. Something else I noticed is I could open the overflow tank while hot relatively easily. I'm pretty sure these systems rely heavily on pressure, so I replaced the cap. Still no difference. Not sure if my issue is the same, but it is bizarre...

I put 1,200 miles on it this weekend throughout the frozen north. My wife was not pleased with the lack of heat.

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Matahoe

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If you have heat from the vent at first and then it gets less warm over time then the heater core is cooling off too quick from lack of coolant flow.

Check your system for air, clogged up hoses or clogged heater cores.
 
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Doubeleive

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My 2012 is having a problem. It'll get to operating temp from cold, but little to no heat. Once I drive, I'll start getting some heat, but the temp comes way down, and then I largely lose heat (lukewarm). After reading your thread, I replaced the thermostat (which was fully closed when I pulled it) with no change. Something else I noticed is I could open the overflow tank while hot relatively easily. I'm pretty sure these systems rely heavily on pressure, so I replaced the cap. Still no difference. Not sure if my issue is the same, but it is bizarre...

I put 1,200 miles on it this weekend throughout the frozen north. My wife was not pleased with the lack of heat.

Sent from my Galaxy Note9 using Tapatalk

Are you just feeling cold air thru the vents or are you seeing the temperature gauge in the instrument cluster actually drop down to cold as well? if the temp gauge isnt dancing all over then you have clog or a bad actuator or broken blend door
 
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shreksbrother

shreksbrother

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Are you just feeling cold air thru the vents or are you seeing the temperature gauge in the instrument cluster actually drop down to cold as well? if the temp gauge isnt dancing all over then you have clog or a bad actuator or broken blend door
Both... The gauge definitely does not stay still, and the air occasionally gets hot, but it's more often lukewarm.

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shreksbrother

shreksbrother

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The coolant temp gauge is a pcm buffered representation of what the engine coolant temperature sensor is telling it. For the sake of troubleshooting you might want to ignore it at first. Its unlikely but it could turn out to be an instrument cluster issue with the stepper motor.

So what I would do is start at step 1 and check the actual temp with a scan tool first. Also make sure hoses are connected to reservoir and heater cores correctly. I found out a while back that the two smaller hoses were hooked up backwards on my coolant recovery tank and it trapped air and a loss of coolant.
Thanks for the hints. I looked over everything and compared it to the service manual. Physically it's all good. I did the bleed procedure, although I didn't add much coolant. If I still have issues, I'll hook up the scanner and check out the actual temps. I also hit the hoses and thermostat housing with my IR thermometer...



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bottomline2000

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Well, not any better at all. Strange and frustrating issue...

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squeeze the warm hose going to your heater core and see if the temp inside the vehicle gets warmer..if so you have a clogged heater core and need to flush your cooling system..start a new thread so this guy doesn't blow a gasket..pun intended..lol..
 
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shreksbrother

shreksbrother

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Well I think I finally figured out the issue... I finally RTFM, where it says that if you press the recirculate button, the AC will come on (meaning the fans will come on). I've always thought the cab temperature would increase faster with recirculate on, but that may not exactly be the case...

I turned recirculate off after reading the manual and the temp came right up to normal operating. Once it warmed up, even if I put it on recirculate it would stay perfect.

Oh well, a lesson learned for me, and perhaps a hint for others.

Thanks to all for the help!

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