When Your Car Heater isn't working it May Be Time for a Car Repair

Dec 3
16:37

2011

Andrew Stratton

Andrew Stratton

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If your car heater is not getting your car warm, you may need a simple car repair to get things back into working order and that can be as simple as replacing a fuse or fixing a hose under your hood.

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If your car heater isn't getting the interior of your car warm,When Your Car Heater isn't working it May Be Time for a Car Repair Articles it can make your commute to work or school a very long and cold one. Your car heater supplies heat inside your car through hot coolant circulating through the engine. Some of that hot coolant goes through a small hose into the firewall of your car and from there it goes into a heat exchanger. You can control this heat coming into your car through the same dials that let you control your air conditioning inside the car.

It sounds simple enough on the surface and it's hard to imagine what could go so terribly wrong to deprive you of warm heat on the coldest day on Earth but there are several car repair problems that can lead to your heater not working that you should be aware of.

The first thing to check under the hood is the hose that is responsible for delivering hot air to the firewall. Is the hose connected and in good repair? A hose that is loose or is damaged from age and wear won't be able to do the job and will need to be replaced or repaired. If the hot coolant hose itself looks connected to the proper source and appears undamaged, check to see if it feels hot. If the hose is not hot it may be a thermostat problem. It's a fairly simple car repair fix for your mechanic to adjust the thermostat and get your heat flowing again.

You can also check the coolant levels to ensure the fluid levels are right where they belong. If the coolant levels are to low there isn't enough coolant flowing through the engine to keep the engine cool and provide an adequate source of coolant to be diverted into hot coolant. If you have a good source of heat until you start to go uphill, your car repair problem could be a faulty vacuum system. Your mechanic will need to test your engine vacuum system and make the necessary adjustments in order to keep an even level of heat coming into your car even when you do go uphill.

Finally, it could be a faulty blower motor which could mean a blown fuse, a relevantly cheap and easy thing to fix or it could be a more expensive repair such as a defective blower motor that will need to be replaced.

If you follow this checklist you should have a pretty good idea about why your car is suddenly as cold as a walk in freezer and you should understand what the mechanic is talking about when they start to go over the possible solutions to your car repair problems which will at least make you feel smarter and warmer. So don't keep driving around in a freezing cold car when the solution to your lack of heat could be as simple to repair replacing a blown fuse or adding some needed coolant.