So I have a weird problem, my heater works but only when I'm on the highway. When I'm Idling or in town it blows freezing cold air (keep in mind I'm in wisconsin and its -2 out right now). I originally thought it might be the heater control valve but today I went and manually opened it and still freezing air. So I really am at a loss right now. I honestly can't drive in these temps with no working heat. I already checked the coolant and topped it off. Any ideas on what might be going on?

 

Does your coolant temp gauge stabilize soemwhere? If not you probably need a new thermostat. If so you may wamt to try burping the system..... It entails loosening the rad cap and running the engine til the fans run a couple times

Also when everything is working the heat in these vehicles kinda sucks... Im probably going to try a higher temp thermostat in my vehicle to see if that helps....

I did a thread last year.... Cannot remember the exact temp of the max heat it puts out into the cabin but it is significantly lower than most other vehicles. My results werw within a couple degrees ferenheit of another member who thought his heat was good. My ram 1500 puts out hot hot air after only a few minutes.... It uses a 190 thermostat... Our cars call for a 172.... Considering trying a 180.

 

Yea the temp guage doesn't fluctuate at all so I will try burping the cooling system

 

I edited my post above... I also installed a new rad and flushed the system out.... It helped some... But still... 20 min to warm up the cabin? Not good enough

 

Where would I go about getting a higher temp thermometer?

 

Thermostat. There is a Beck/Arnley one on rockauto that is 180. I input 2008 tl 3.2L if it males any difference in results.

I could be the guinea pig or you could.. Im not home till the 5th or something.

Basedon your last response you may want to get someone to install it... The lower bolt is a bit hard to access... But doable with a couple smaller extensions and a magnetic tool

 

Shhhhhhhh I knew I totally said thermometer.

 

Heh... Its not that hard though... I might use a winter one amd a summer one in the future

 

I came here for this same issue. I'm having the same issues. While driving the heat is fine, at idle I'm getting cold air. No movement on the temp gauge.

 

sounds like air in the system to me... You should try burping it as well.... I get heat idling but not as much as when driving.... But definitely should be warm air and not cold air coming through.

Both you guys should put some rags around the rad cap though because some fluid will come out when the temperature rises.... Keeping the cap on loosely helps mitigate this quite a bit.

 

I will give that a shot. Thanks for the reply. After doing some digging I also found the HCV (heater control valve) to be an issue. It looks like a nice easy fix, when it isn't 2 degrees as it is in Chicago.

 

Oh one more thing... Set the temp to max before you burp it then shut it off or turn the fan speed to minimum (what i do). This emsures the contents going to the heater core is also circulated.