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Hi gang,
Wifes trusty 94 prizm has a new issue.
The heater output used to be quite good after the car hit op temp.
Now its only a tad warmer than ambient.The cable to the valve appears functional. (It moves the lever, and is hooked up correctly)
The valve (the part i can see without taking it apart) appears fine
Both hoses to the heater core are warm/hot, with the top one being a tad warmer.2 issues. Well 3,
The radiator has begun leaking where the aluminum meets the plastic on the top. But its full.
Coolaint overflow tank was empty but it was that way for years and car never overheated and heater was fine
Due to the rad leaking i left the rad cap loose to try and reduce losses.Currently, the overflow tank, which was filled to “full” 2 weeks ago has lost more than half, he is a little above the low line now.
When i did fill the system i put about a cup of coolaint before radiator was full.
On the other hand, my civic same size motor, was far lower on coolaint, probably a quart to fill the radiator and then the entire overflow tank, and his heat was never bad, just a bit worse than usual and hes great now — i used tap water in both, am i going to hell?
Sadly my ebay radiator for the civic is leaking less than 3 years after installation… so thats why it was 45 dollars…..
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[quote=”dosmastr” post=79371]Ok. Took the bottom hose off the valve. Shined a light in, it moves as it is supposed to.
Im at a total loss here. Everything is working but this system is not working. This is why i stopping screwing with computers and the like, fix everything that could be causing it and you still dont fix it… and look like an idiot[/quote]
Can you actually see the flap inside the valve move?
If the hose is hot before the valve and than cool after it, it would seem there is some kind of obstruction. Can you remove the valve all the way and use low pressure air to verify it is working?
Cant figure how this clamp lets go.
It would seriously help if i could find a goddam map that shows what direction the coolant flows.
The single one i could find that appeared to be a toyota motor appeared to show that the bottom hose is actually the hot line.
The valve which looks robust and fully functional is on the top (cool?) Line. And no flow thru the core kept the other side cool…. the one question i dont get is after a 45min drive everything is very warm, why isnt whe core cooling some of the coolant on both sides (like a heat pipe in a cpu heatsink for example)My theory would be that the heat from the motor is backing up into the cool line due to is not moving… and perhaps i failed to actually clear the core. Open to any other ideas for sure!
I dont know how much pressure i used but it really didnt feel like that much,
As for the valve, i have no clue how to remove this hose clamp, never seen anything like it. The cotter pin APPEARS to be speerate, but the two legs are perfectly straight… and he wont budge, id rip the hoses before he came out i think.
wish I had found that a couple days ago…. couldn’t see how it went together…. easier to see it in these photos
the valve was in when I blew air the coolant out of the core. I did it the way eric did, took hoses off motor… and had to home make a couple plugs so that the block and rad didn’t drain, it was glugging away before I stuck the plug on.
I can see all sorts of problems arising with those clamps. If it were me, I would replace it with a good old fashioned worm screw clamp, and call it a day.
Yeah I have seen those from time to time, I usually rip ’em out and replace them with regular clamps.
yes but before that is the pesky problem of getting the d*mn thing off!
Couldn’t get the other end of hose off the core either… stuck fast even with the clamp removed. (though some leakage did occur, I noticed I didn’t have the clamp back perfectly where it was…. maybe its looser now.)
Unless you have other ideas, I’m thinking I failed to adequately clear the crap out of the core.
I’m planning to take the car to the parents house, run the compressor to get the coolant mostly out (lower toxicity for next step), and then hookup a garden hose and go watch a tv show. Then reverse the hose and repeat. core only appeared to hold 8oz – 10 oz.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1XuBrDY7k4 worked for the redneck, why not for me? lol
I still wonder though, household water is at 40psi, so his hose was running 40psi into a 13psi system? not sure how wise that is.
lol he says air compressors use c02.
“coolant doesn’t go bad, it just loses some of its cooling properties”
I guess he and I have different definitions of “go bad”It was the flap inside the car, to allow air to pass through the heater that was malfunctioning. Manually pulled the arm and i got heat again.
Still dont see how it broke, cable attached on both ends… fault someplace behind the dash, but for now its good
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