Heat

Maintenance/Repairs
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1

I have an 01 Taurus that has basically been blowing cold air even when heat is on for that last year. We did not get it looked at because we had been planning on getting new car (didn’t happen) we were told it could be coil except that occasionally for a few minutes we will get good heat it doesn’t last long though. Now because we are coming into winter we need to get looked at and called to get estimate on getting checked out to see what wa wrong and they said to bring in for pressure check. What is a pressure check and what is checking for.

2

A pressure check checks for a leak somewhere in the cooling system. If you are not having any problems with the engine overheating or with coolant loss, then you don’t have a leak and don’t need a pressure check.

You could have either one of two problems.

  1. Your heater core may be clogged. You can have a flow test done on it to see if this is the case. Before you do that, you can do somewhat of a check yourself. Bring the engine up to full temperature and then feel both heater hoses (about in the middle). If both are hot, then you have flow and your heater core is not clogged.

  2. Your blend air door is not operating correctly. This is a little air door that determines how much air from the AC system passes through the heater core and how much goes around it (bypass). If it is stuck in the bypass position, you won’t get any heat. The air door is controlled by a little electric motor. This is true even if you have manual climate control. I think that this is probably your issue.

3

Thank you I will do those things checked and not have the pressure test because we are not having an issue with any overheating at all.

4

Perhaps you got the answer to have a pressure check because low coolant can affect heater output and the person on the phone just skipped providing you with his diagnostic reasoning.

Have you actually checked the coolant level (in the actual radiator, not the overflow bottle?) Low coolant can cause an incorrect gague reading also BUT I hardly think you have been driving a car that was low on coolant and overheating for a year. still check the coolant level first.

5

Being as its a Taurus a clogged heater core is most likely the problem. Check the condition of the coolant. If its rusty with a lot of sediment then a complete cooling system flush will be needed