tkl

Hi there, i'm from Ontario Canada. When i turned on the heat(ECON), i only got cold air coming out of the vents, when it's at max, snow on the windshield where the viper is get blaster to my face and everywhere in my car. What's going on? I got no heat even when i turn the temperature to 28C deg, only the fan is turing faster. So what could be the problems?

Thanks.

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

turn off the econ. that normally refers to A/C

broncoguy

Also make sure your lever on the left side of the climate control is in the closed position, and you are set to re-circulate rather than draw in outside air

Paul89SE

I have a similar problem, but i've tried everything (thermostat, checked vent door, emptied leaves and moisture out of blower motor, tried to get air pocket out of heater core) and nothing works. 3rd generation heating sucks!

tkl

I thought ECON is heating only, by passing the AC. Atleast that's what my owner manual says. I didn't get any warm air even with almost 40 mins of driving. Usually i'll get a bit of warm air in 10 mins with -20c outside temperature. What's the deal of getting snow into the car through vents?
Help guys, it's freaking cold today. Snow in to face plus the smell of the engine is not very nice to start the new year.

subs1000w

maybe your heater core is clogged

or some lever to change from hot to cold is stuck

tmuscedere

Check the valve at the firewall to see if its allowing coolant to flow to the heater core

drstillpatient

iTrader: (2)

yup...econ is infact for heating...i used auto all winter with my other car and that worked too...check the lever on the left of the digital display, it should be down position. if that doenst solve it, check the heater valve. The little vaccum hoses on the valve can come off easily and not allow the valve to work.

shoult

iTrader: (1)

Your 3rd gen might suck at heating, but mine gets nice and toasty warm. Sounds like you've got a problem with YOUR car, and an expensive one at that. If you can feel resistance on the heat lever when you shift from cool to hot and back then your cables/doors are probably ok. Can you say heater core? Bummer. I knew you could!

Paul89SE

Sounds like maybe your blower motor is clogged. You can take out the glovebox and remove the lower part of the dash to get to it. From there there are 3 screws, a wiring harness and a plastic tube left to remove. When cleaning out the blower make sure you blow the stuff out of the tube too.

Paul89SE

Anybody know of a way to raise the car 39 inches off the ground to get rid of air pockets in the heater core? Jackstands can only be raised like a foot, i've also tried parking on a steep hill. They want you to bleed it in a position that a car would get towed.

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

See there's your answer!
use a wrecker to lift the front end

94M@X

My heat gets toasty too. Check to make sure the coolant level is correct. I had mine a bit low and was having the same problem.

drstillpatient

iTrader: (2)

didnt the steep hill work, it should have the same effect? how steep was it?

rcy

As said, make sure the fresh air lever is in the down position. When it is in the up position, the air from your centre vents bypass the heater core/AC evaporator and air is drawn in directly from outside at whatever the outside temperature is. I imagine snow could be sucked in too. You should, however, still be getting heat from the floor vents even with the lever in the 'fresh' or up position. If you're not, there could be any number of reasons. Your thermostat could be stuck open (does your temperature gauge rise to somewhere between a quarter and half?), the vacuum hose could have come off the heater control valve, or you could have air stuck in the heater core although the problem with air in the heater core only applied to 89-91 Maxima's (I think.. - I have all the TSB's from Nissan burned on a disc somewhere if you really want to know).

rcy

The 'econ' setting actually bypasses the A/C entirely (the compressor will never run). In the 'auto' mode, the compressor will always run, unless the outside temperature is low enough to damage the compressor, in which case the compressor will not run even in 'auto' mode. For those with A/C who live in cold climates, you should run the compressor for 10mins a month to circulate the oil in the freon/R134 and to keep the seals in the system from drying out.

todamax

iTrader: (6)

This is correct.

Bman

Yup, he knows his stuff!

If the fan is blowing then that is fine.

Check that fresh air bypass lever as said - I made that mistake when I first bought my car.

It could be a stuck heater door. There's a door that opens and closes to determine what mix of hot/cold air enters the cabin. It could be stuck shut so the heater core is bypassed... Have you tried changing modes and turning the unit on and off again? Sometimes the motor(s?) in my unit get stuck and keep running, but turning it off and on again stops it.

I don't know how snow is getting inside the car.... the grate on the intake should stop all that I imagine....

Could you please explain "engine smell"? You don't mean exhaust smell do you?

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

Don't know about your car, but the compressor kicks on when you put on the defroster on my car.
(actually all my current cars are that way, except maybe the jeep)

rcy

Actually that's right. I forgot to mention that. On most cars the compressor will kick in in defrost mode unless, as stated, it's too cold out. I know most domestics do it, but some imports don't. Honda, for example, only started doing it since the 1998 model year, and even then, it comes on when you select defrost, but when you de-select defrost, it stays on until you manually turn off the A/C switch. What the heck were they thinking?

tkl

I went out for a short drive yesterday and after that i open the hood this is what i found out. My coolant is very low, i think i have a leak somewhere. I didn't use the correct liquid gasket for the water pipe when i replaced the knock sensor last summer. I think that's why i have a coolant leak. So my question is, is that anything like a automotive silicon or something i can use to fix the problem? I really don't want to take everything apart if i don't have to.

I also saw the power steering fluid is leaking, i guess that where the engine smell is coming from.

You think if i top up the coolant for now, will i get the heat back? Would that solve the snow coming into the vents? I'll check the fresh air lever you are talking about. I think i have it set to the top, which you guys say it should be down. I've been using the lever at the top position for 3 years, and i still got heat in the cold winter. The manual says the lever should be on top under normal driving.
Anyway, i got to go out and see what i can do to the car. It's -19c today, with windshield ..... ouch!

internetautomar

iTrader: (30)

HonDUH!!!!
and people wonder why I don't care for hondas

94M@X

I think adding coolant to the approtiate level should fix your problem. It fixed mine

Bman

I bet that Honda A/C thing might have something to do with the fact that Honda kept offering A/C only as a dealer installed and not a factory installed option for years.


I think topping the coolant off might give you your heat back - coolant won't flow right without enough in the system. I had a crazy overheating problem on my previous beater one day and discovered I was just a couple quarts or so low on coolant. I don't know if that would keep the snow from blowing inside the car though - that problem still bugs me. Maybe check the wire screens over the cowl intakes to see if they're all still in place.

Hmm, that's funny about the lever - I just noticed today that I have my lever in the "down" position. The pictogram without the blue wavy "fresh air" image... There is a closeup picture of my climate control on page 2 of my homepage if anyone's wondering. Is it different or something?

rcy

Nah, my Mom has a 2002 Accord with factory air - when you select defrost, the A/C comes on (dash switch lights up, too). When you de-select defrost, the A/C stays on. It's ridiculous.

According to the owner's manual, you should normally have the fresh air lever in the DOWN position. I've used the UP position the odd time when it's cool out, so the system selects heat and the air comes from the floor vents, but it's also sunny out and my upper body is hot from the sun beating down. Select the UP (or fresh air) position, and I get air directly from outside at the outside temperature from the two centre vents. Other than that, I don't know when else you would use it, except maybe to clear out some stale fart before you pick up a passenger

bvtran

iTrader: (3)

my car has the same problem too and what I did was drained and refilled the coolant. It somewhat solved my problem, at least I am getting some heats. Since it's cold as hell out there so I wouldn't flush it if I were you. Just do a drain and refill process. First go to the store and buy yourself a cheap bottle of Prestone Flush bottle ($2.50 @ kmart). When you wake up on Friday, get to your car and look for the radiator drain plug, loosen it a little and let it loose a quart or an equivalent amount of the Prestone bottle size. That shouldn't takes no more than 4 mins to do. Tighten that plug back. Unscrew the radiator cap, now dump an entire bottle of Prestone in. Screw back the radiator cap. Just drive your car as normal. When you wake up on Sat, loosen the radiator drain plug and cap, and let it drains while you wait inside. Just let it loose and forget about it for an hour. Then come back, and refill with 50/50 amount, maybe 75/50 is better for Canadian. That should solve your problems a little. You should be getting some heats thru the lower holes and those holes by the windshield. Turn off the face blower cuz your heater core is probably still blocked, so there is no point in leaving it on with cold air blowing into your face. You really need to take it apart and flush it manually in the summer. Hey, you never know. Give this process a shot. Like I'd said, it kinda works for me.

rcy

The maximum ratio you should go with antifreeze/water is 70/30. I forget why..something to do with pure antifreeze actually boiling at a lower temp than if mixed with water.......or is it freezing at a higher temp...??

COChev

Just went through all this 3rd gen poor heater crap too. heater was hopelessly cool to luke warm at best. So today i dumped all the coolent. flushed the radiator and heater core with the garden hose. put a new t-stat. in. and then did the air purging with the front of the car 3 feet in the air.

conclusion:

it actually worked! heater is hot now. i was amazed at how much air bubbles came out while perging the air out and it did take all of a half hour to do it. i drove the car onto ramps then slid a spare tire i had under there and put my floor jack on top of it. i jacked right in the center of the anti-sway bar. kinda sketchy but really the tires where not that far above the ramps. i stood on a little work bench i have and sat and watched the bubbles while i had a couple beers.

hope this helps.

bvtran

iTrader: (3)

I understood how you jacked up your car 3ft up in the front. But how did you purged the air out? Can you go into a little bit more details on that, such as which plug you let loosen or took off?

COChev

topped off the radiator, left the cap off, started the car and kept adding as needed. your supposed to keep the car at about a grand. i used a small little flate screwdriver wedged in at the throttle stop. make sure when the t state opens that you stop filling or when it closes it will overflow the radiator. don't get in a rush, it takes a while, the bubble just keep coming. have some cold ones handy to pass the time

bvtran

iTrader: (3)

Damn. That's one crazy blizzard you got there, it reminds of the two blizzards we got here back in Dec. lol Sick stuffs.

Cool. So, you could actually take off the radiator cap and have the engine running, just as long as the front was jacked up high enough. I didn't know that, I gotta give that a try next time. Last time when I did a drain and fill, each time the car sucked all of the coolant out of the overflow tank, I turned off the car and kept on refilling until it's full. But this method is definately way better and will save a lot of lives. Thanks.

Paul89SE

I think the beer drinking is what helped the most. There should be a forum on beer drinking and maximas. I like your picture of 3 feet of snow on your car.

COChev

it's the cheepest way i've found to lower your car