I Have Heat Again!!! Clogged Heater Core

[Wolfman213]

Not sure if this had been addressed before or not, here it goes anyways lol.I've not had heat for about two months. Gets kinda irritating driving an hr to work when it's only 10-30 degrees out with no heat. I was able to confirm that the heater core was clogged and the guy told me to swap the hoses around and it will break free what's clogged in there.Last night I got around to it and it was just a small PITA to get them off and swapped. In total I ran the heat blasting for about 30 minutes and all of a sudden I have heat again!!! My temperature gauge is reading more normal now than it did previously also.I do need the coolant flushed and will be doing that this or next weekend since 1) it does need it anyways 2) i've sent all that gunk flying through the system.This post is meant more as a method to unclog your heater core if you are strapped for cash and can't afford getting it hooked up to a machine. That being said, once you get it all busted loose you will want to get it flushed rather quickly since you just sent all that gunk into the system now.

[sideshowalan]

Congratulations. Out of curiosity, wow did you know it was clogged? And which hoses did you switch?

[Wolfman213]

A mechanic that works on my fiances car grabbed the hoses and one was supper hot and the other was about as cold as it was outside. The two hoses that go into the heater core, I simply put the top on the bottom and the bottom on the top. He said that the heater core essentially doesn't care which direction the coolant is coming from, so by switching them, it does no harm to the system and uncloggs the core by switching the directions of flow. He did say though that if after time it still didn't break it free and give me heat, that I was SoL and have to get it hooked up in order to clear it out.

[silverbullet]

Thanks for posting that. That's a really good tip that could come in handy. We had another car with that problem this year, but it worked itself loose somehow before I got to fixing it.

[Wolfman213]

Yeah I thought it was a great tip as well! It's one of those you hope you don't have to utilize, but def a good thing to know!

[joatmon]

sinuuar had to do the hose swap, but he wasn't sure if it was an air bubble or a crud blockage. when you do flush the system, let us know if you see any obvious excessive amounts of crud in the current coolant.

[Wolfman213]

I figured someone else had to have done this before, just couldn't find any threads for it.Yeah I definitely will give an update once I get it flushed. I'm hoping I can have it done next week, but it's all dependent on when the tax money comes in lol