Dodge pickup heater

[Anonymous-0]

2002 Dodge pickup heater just doesn't heat up the cab. I don't think it is the blend door (hot to cool knob). If you turn it on vent and hold your hand at the vent doors and turn the knob to cool it gets cool. If you turn it to hot is gets warmer. That leaves either the engine thermostat or a plugged core. The temperature gauge on the dash reads 1/2 way - which seems normal. Today I put a piece of card board in front of the radiator and it actually put out some heat. Not extremely hot but warmer. I subpose I covered at least 3/4 of it. Temperature gauge moved almost all the way to the red zone. Like I say warm air but not real hot in the cab. You would think it would get very hot and you would have to turn it down. Could be the core. Another thing I found is a "coolant bleeder" on the engine block. Engine is a 4.3 V8. Could there be somekind of an air lock? Plastic tank for cooling system is clear full. Any other ideas?

 

[MIKE FRENCH]

I had the same prob on my 3/4 ton 02 dodge. had to put a restiction in the return heater hose to fix the problem. The coolant was cycling through to fast. This fixed it for me, good luck

 

[bobs old iron]

a couple things could be the problem,,,one, check the thermostat, see if it get hot enough, also, [i always wanted to do this on my p/stroke, wish i put a h2o filter like the big rigs to keep junk out of the heater core], which brings up the next thing to check/do,take the heater hoses off engine side, and back flush out the core [opsite way of flow] to see if junk comes out...maybe check if h2o pump isn't going out...

 

[Old Roy]

Maybe have an air pocket within the heater system that the water pump isn't circulating correctly. causing air lock.

 

[Stephen Newell]

It sounds to me to be the thermostat. They are usually cheap and easy to replace. I would try that and see what happens. Somewhere in the system there should be a valve that controls the amount of hot water that passes through the core. If it is stuck nearly closed it could deprive the heater of hot water.

 

[ASEguy]

You need to verify coolant temp. You don't want to get the 4.7 too hot. Without the restriction in front of the radiator, and at operating temp., feel the upper hose. If it's HOT the thermostat isn't the issue. Next feel both heater hoses at the same time. They both should be about the same as the upper hose. If one is warm and the other cool it's a heater core blockage problem. If they are both hot then it's probably inside the cab. Heater core blockages can be blown out usually with shop air, but I don't recommend it unless you have the experience in doing so. If you do decide to make the heater core "sneeze" make sure to have both heater hoses off. Hope this helps. Gerard

 

[Bob in SD]

My 2002 (w/ a 4.7, I think) has the clear plastic tank on top of the radiator, with the pressure cap on top of that (not a conventional overflow tank). When the tank is all the way full the heat works ok. If it's down the least bit it only puts out heat at higher RPMs (not at idle). It took me a while to figure that out last winter (first winter with the truck), and might be worth checking if you've got a similar set up.

It also has a slow leak, not enough to find any on the ground, on the engine (or in the oil, thanfully), but enough to smell when the truck is hot. With out winter temps here in South Dakota it gets somewhat annoying.

 

[Anonymous-0]

My 99 dodge was not pushing enough air out the outlets and was not heating also.Had to replace the heater core .Now thats a big job the the whole dash needs to come out the heater core was only about 75.00 dollars but their was a lot of labor involved but now it will blow you right out of the truck like it was new. the inside of the heater core was lined with crud and plugged with dust ,hair leaves.

 

[kj(seil)]

same here 99 dodge replaced heater core runs you out now