Heater acting strange lately

I've searched M.net but couldn't find my exact problem.

Car warms up like normal, even on cold days, maybe 5 - 10 minutes if it's really cold. Heater can take 15, as in blows cold air for a few minutes after the engine warms up to temp. Seems like it's getting worse. When the heater finally warms up and blows nice and cozy, puling up to a stoplight it starts blowing cold air. Seems like only blows warm when the car is moving(or the engine is revved past 2.5k, not sure on this). After about 20 minutes of driving this seems to mostly go away, but I can still feel it less warm at stoplights.

Now disclaimer: I try to warm the engine up before I leave on cold days, but sometimes I'm runnign late so I just drive really easy till it warms up. I have to drive through a really long school zone right out of the driveway anyway so it's not so bad. This makes the problem much worse. This morning the heater started blowing ice cold when I pulled in to work, 20 minutes later.

Oh one more thing, lately the heater core I can hear start gurgling every time I pull up and cut the engine. I've checked for wet carpet, but found nothing.

Things I'm going to do when I get free time this weekend or next: Flush coolant, attempt to get all the air out of the system, new thermostat (don't think this is the problem but needs changing anyway), new radiator cap. Check hoses, but haven't lost coolant so don't think these are the problem either.

Any further ideas?

You have air bubbles in your heater core.

That's what I was leaning towards.

Any good ideas to get them out? I was plannign on jacking the front of the car up while flushing the coolant, but doubt that'll get them all the way from the heater core.

Could a loose hose connection make it suck air in to the system?

unless you need to change coolant, you want to put coolant in, not take it out...

i had a friend back home that used to swear by these

http://www.denlorstools.com/home/dt1..._kit_wext.html

Swore it was the only way to refill the old Nissan Z cars without wasting years of tech time supervising adding the last pint of coolant...

You loosing any coolant Jigger??

Opps wait I see you say you are not loosing coolant.

I'd start with a radiator cap.

I'd drop a couple of GasX tablets in the radiator first ;) Seems to help me when I have bubbles in the system.

Borrow a pressure tester for free from Oreilly.
Massage the hoses while the car is running to help pump-out any air.
Is your water/coolant brown and muddy looking?

I recently had to flush my GF's Cherokee because the flunky shop who worked on it put tap water in it and it wouldn't cooler properly. I bet you have a bad hose sucking in air, the heater core is the hardest plate to remove air. In my VW I've been forced to force water through the heater core with a hose, then replace all water with distilled.

If you can pressurize the system, that'd be the best way to get air out. The new radiator cap and checkign all hose connections should eliminate the source of the air, then it might just work itself out. If it still has trapped air, you might need to insert a "t" into the line going into the heater core and try to bleed air there.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tailchaser

i had a friend back home that used to swear by these

http://www.denlorstools.com/home/dt1..._kit_wext.html

Swore it was the only way to refill the old Nissan Z cars

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I have that exact kit for that exact car. Well, I used it for my Z32 not an older Datsun Z car. Was easier than jacking up the front of the car. I now use it for any car, as it really is the clean and easy way to go about refilling a coolant system.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Rob®

I have that exact kit for that exact car. Well, I used it for my Z32 not an older Datsun Z car. Was easier than jacking up the front of the car. I now use it for any car, as it really is the clean and easy way to go about refilling a coolant system.

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Hmmm... buy you some beer...err...bottle of wine???

Works for me. Let me know when you need it. Wifey will be doing homework all weekend and I need to get out of the house, so I could drop it off tomorrow or Sunday if you want. Otherwise just say when. I also have a pressure tester somewhere too. If I can dig that up, I will bring that as well. Almost positive I lost the small cap tester part of it though, so that sucks.

Speaking of beer, the guys I said that named me the "beer guru" now invited me to their monthly beer meet tonight. Naturally the one time we have other plans.

Hah, funny. I think i'm booked for this weekend, might have time Sunday but it's so damn cold. I'll let you know.

Thanks BTW!

Oh..well I meant I could just drop it off for a week or two - I won't be needing either till it gets warmer. I have no problem helping/doing it for you, but that's not what I meant. Either way, I'll pull everything out of it's box so I have it ready for you when you are.

Ok no problem. Looks simple enough I'm sure I can figure it out. That'll work, just drop it off whenever you get a minute to swing by. I won't be home tonight or saturday all day so it'd still have to be at least Sunday or next week.