Freezing my nuts off!

[Mixalot27]

I'm having a problem with the heater in my winter beater. It blows heat fine when I'm in drive and driving. But whenever I put it in park I get no heat at all, just cold air blowing. Even if I rev the engine still no heat comes out at all. But then when I put it in drive and start driving , 30 secs later I have heat again. The vehicle is a 96 Ford Windstar btw. Any ideas what the problem is?

[ercchry]

ford windstar or just ford thats the problem

but when this happens and you are in drive staying still does it still blow cold? and if so then do you have it set on fresh air or recirculate

[Mixalot27]

When stopped but in drive like at a light it still blows hot. Its just when its in park that it blows cold I think. This was the first time its happened. I've had this van 2 winters and not spent one dime on it except for oil change and new battery. So its been pretty good so far

edit....no recirculate or fresh settings as far as I can see. Only feet, feet+dash, defrost. Then a hot to cold dial and a fan strength setting dial.

[ercchry]

weird because if it was on fresh air and was hot while moving i would say blower fan (duh) but that just wierd

[ryder_23]

If its still blowing, doubt blower motor. Heater core issue maybe, maybe you got a low temp thermostat, so when stopped it stays open, cooling to much :dunno:

[Mixalot27]

Yeah I know I'm puzzled too. I mean how does it know when the difference between drive and in park when I'm pushing on the gas. The van does some other wierd things though, like the check engine, ebrake, and abs lights go on and off for no reason. And sometimes the power locks lock and unlock by themselves while I am driving. I'm just hoping this van makes it through the winter without having to spend $ on it.

edit...also when this was happening I noticed that my heat gauge would jump back and forth from about half way to nearly red. Never quite got to red though, but higher than I have seen it go before.

[ryder_23]

Hit the red at idle?

[ercchry]

check if its throwing any codes

[Mixalot27]

Never quite hit the red on idle, just would go from half way to almost red and then back to half again randomly. Don't know how to to check codes myself and don't want to spend $. My plan is to give the dash a couple hard punches and hope that fixes it. lol Otherwise I guess as long as it still blows heat when I'm driving I will survive. Its just kind of annoying.

[atomic]

check your fluid . it's most likely real low .

or

your water pump is on it's way out .

in nuteral, hold the rev's at 3,00 and see if any heat comes out .

[pyar_deewane]

Originally posted by Mixalot27
Any ideas what the problem is?

its a ford:rofl:

[Stiny]

might be cause its a gay ford. my buddy had a 94 ranger and everytime we'd be sitting outside a jobsite in park it would only blow cold air too :dunno:

[Thaco]

It's possible that the little flap that decides to draw the air from outside, or from the heater core is busted, and when you are driving the wind force holds it to the heater core side and when you stop it flips back to the outside air side.

[benyl]

Maybe your van has a ghost.

[kevie88]

This could possibly be a stupid question, but is the radiator full? if you're down a quart or two it will blow intermittent heat.. My 85 civic has a leaky water pump and uses a little coolant so when it gets low, it blows no heat at idle, I suspect it's not filling the heater core all the way.

Let the van cool down and see if the rad is empty (not just the bottle)

[benyl]

what about this?

If it has a transmission cooler, it would know when the car is in drive or not. Maybe you need to check the fluid levels.

[Mixalot27]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I know it does leak a small amount of coolant. I refilled it not too long ago but maybe it needs more again. I will try adding some tomorrow and see if that fixes it. Thanks again.

[Slashin_]

sell it!,coolant flush,thermo stat.....try stick a piece of cardboard infront of rad

[Mixalot27]

I solved the problem. You guys were right, it was low coolant. I thought if anything having low coolant would cause extra heat (overheating), not lack of heat. Goes to show you what I know which is basically nothing.

Anyways thanks alot for the help. And perfect timing too, just before the cold snap hit.

Thread :closed: