lowrider Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 From the latest round of disco potato related wildness. Last night it dipped down to -25C or -15F. FAWKIN COLD!!!! I got home abnormally early yesterday at seven, shut the truck off and didn't start it again until this morning, via the remote, at around 7 (i was running quite late). Ran for 10 mins with the remote start, hop in and it's still blowing hella cold air. No big deal, temp gauge hasn't moved at all, figure i'll have heat by the time i get to the highway. Get to the highway, it's at about a quarter of the way on the temp guage, no heat. COLD air is blowing out, no matter which vents i swtich it to. The temp gauge climbs to normal operating temperature and stays there, still blows cold. At this point, i'm going about 120 kph (70 mph) and nothing, nothing, nothing, just cold air. There is a very strange noise coming from the cowling area, like a crunching noise, its hard to describe. I get to 16th Ave, which is about 20 mins into my commute, and finally hit the fan switch again, and have heat. That was an hour and a half ago and i still have limited feeling in my feet and toes. Anyone have this happen before? I would like to figure it out so as to prevent that kind of commute again, but i have no idea what happened? Perhaps somehow a bunch of ice got lodged in the cowl vents, but i would think that would just cause the heater to not blow as hard with a blockage and would theoretically blow heat on recirc which it didn't either. Any thoughts? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mookie Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 Hey Eli, I get ice ice or hard packed snow in the vents too. Slip a piece of cardboard between your ac condensor and Rad. Cut a hole(s) in it for some air. (The poor mans winter front). That will give you your heat back for those highway drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowrider Posted December 6, 2005 Author Share Posted December 6, 2005 Hey Eli, I get ice ice or hard packed snow in the vents too. Slip a piece of cardboard between your ac condensor and Rad. Cut a hole(s) in it for some air. (The poor mans winter front). That will give you your heat back for those highway drives. Will that make a difference in what happened today, Kev? Not that i'm questioning your method, but since it got up to normal op. temperature fine, wouldn't have still blown cold air regardless? Thank god it's going to be 11C (50F) on Friday.... -bounce- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9sar Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 Last winter I had a thermostat freeze. Engine heated but flow to the heater core was restricted so I got no heat internal. Nearly boiled over while driving to work that day. parked ont he side of the road, turned the engine off and let everything under the hood come to a common temp (and let the ice melt) then started it up and all was well again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mookie Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 Yes, and no. Normally, once the engine gets to temp, we have plenty of heat, but I found that on very cold highway trips, if my rad isn't blocked, I barely get heat until I slow down. You replaced your t-stat this summer didnt' you? Another thing to try is to bleed the air out. Just undo that little bolt on top near the firewall on the driverside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simon Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 If you had the switch on the fresh air setting, it could be that the intake near the firewall was blocked with ice. The stock grills near the windsheild let far too much crap in. Possibly froze up there. That could be the crunch you heard as the blower motor chewed up some ice. Next time, try on the recirculation setting. If you get heat that way, then the fresh air intake is your issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowrider Posted December 6, 2005 Author Share Posted December 6, 2005 If you had the switch on the fresh air setting, it could be that the intake near the firewall was blocked with ice. The stock grills near the windsheild let far too much crap in. Possibly froze up there. That could be the crunch you heard as the blower motor chewed up some ice. Next time, try on the recirculation setting. If you get heat that way, then the fresh air intake is your issue. As per my first post --- Perhaps somehow a bunch of ice got lodged in the cowl vents, but i would think that would just cause the heater to not blow as hard with a blockage and would theoretically blow heat on recirc which it didn't either. I'll try bleeding the air out like you said, Kevin, i hadn't thought of that. This is the first time it's happened, so hopefully was just a fluke thing. I'll have to remember to put it in timer mode, then it'll idle for 5 mins every 2 hours and hopefully not get so damn cold. Thanks for the quick feedback, fellas. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
k9sar Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 good luck and bundle up Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vidro Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 Minus WHAT? I may have missed it in your post but where in the heck are U located? I don't think they even sale thermometers that go that low here in Texas. I just got done looking at the thermometer on my out side wall and the lowest it goes is 50. Wait, that can't be right. I think I just figured out what happened to the babies rectal thermometer. The national weather guys issued a winter storm adviser for tomorrow night, they predicting 40 degrees with rain. Ha kidding. Seriously they are predicting highs in the mid 20s. 20 degrees or minus 20 degrees after 32 it's all the same to me, to Dam* COLD!!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
94extreme Posted December 6, 2005 Share Posted December 6, 2005 (edited) Hey Eli, I get ice ice or hard packed snow in the vents too. Slip a piece of cardboard between your ac condensor and Rad. Cut a hole(s) in it for some air. (The poor mans winter front). That will give you your heat back for those highway drives. you don't need a hole in it in those temps. anything below freezing, you should be ok unless you do a lot of stop and go.. burping the rad may solve this issue.. if you have coolant in the overflow it should have burped itself by now.. i hardly do it.. just as long as it's close, the truck will burp while the engine temps go up and down and coolant expands and contracts.. the other thing it could be is that the controls or valves themsleves froze .. i am pretty sure the vent switches are vacuum driven so there also could have been some frozes condensation in those lines.. Edited December 6, 2005 by mzxtreme Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TeenZombie Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 Mine takes quite a long time to heat up, just thought I would say that even though its not the same thing as your problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vidro Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 Artic front came threw this morning around 1:00 a.m., 12 degrees outside. I go to work between the hours of 1 and 8 a.m depending on situation. Work is about 20 miles from domicile. I let the vehicle warm up for about 10 minutes this morning before heading on the highway, cold air blowing from heater after the warm-up period. Manual shifting a little hard because the oil viscosity is about 1 at this temperature or maybe 100 I get those confused. Long story short, vehicle was running for about 30 minutes when I arrived at work is when it started to blow warm air and the C/H needled was just barely off C. Maybe these vehicles are just cold natured. On the other hand my carbureted 67Cougar would still be in the drive way warming up. I'm not sure the automatic choke would function under these conditions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animal Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 In real cold temps, running the heater will delay the engine warm up. The heater coil is a mini radiator. Even on recirculate, the heat is exchanged with the cold cabin air (that's quite a bit in a Pathy) and somewhere around 20% fresh air (due to some requirement about suffocating). Set on fresh air is worse, of course. In addition, the defrost setting on newer vehicles (not sure which year this started) cycles the A/C - some braniac's idea to "dry the air", as if air at 12 degrees holds any measurable moisture! Running the fan on high makes it worse. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey.T Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 Well now we had -1F in Spokane this morning and the 95 just did not want to get warm in the driveway, so I took it around the corner and up a little hill to a sunny spot 3 min later everything was defrosted except for the Drivers side mirror Take off and head into the office with some really nice warm heat blowin......... WTF where is this cold air coming from??? Temp gauge starts climbing Got pulled over and just happen to have some actual Anti-Freeze.... topped her off and got back on the road,,,,,, ahhhhh Warmth -bounce- Tonight i get to figure out where the leaky is or if its just one of those days...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dnodog Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 i just want to p off some one by saying that we hit an all time low here of 15 C. ahhh life in the tropics! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vidro Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 15C is like what 60F. Is this your yearly low? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Precise1 Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 My experience with my last 2 Nissan trucks is that they have very efficient cooling systems, ie. Greater cooling capacity then is 'required' for the motor. Thats just fine by me and going the other way is dumb, but it does mean for those of you in the land of ice and snow that your truck isn't going to warm up quick, if at all really The cardboard trick is better than nothing, probably work very nicely in conjunction with an electric fan, especially if you can manually shut it off. I though block heaters were used up there on the tundra ? B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Slick Posted December 7, 2005 Share Posted December 7, 2005 and i got excited when it hit 26 degrees here.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Animal Posted December 8, 2005 Share Posted December 8, 2005 i just want to p off some one by saying that we hit an all time low here of 15 C.ahhh life in the tropics! Yeah, but you can't keep snow in those temps. Do you have any idea how well deer show up in the snow. I love the cold! -bounce- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest markheber Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 A "Winter Front", even cardboard is a MUST for cold weather. My Pathy wouldn't warm up in the winter without one. Of course the Durango's just as bad with those big openings in the front wheel wells. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey.T Posted December 9, 2005 Share Posted December 9, 2005 We had another COLD night and will be again tonight. Could not find the leak.... topped it of this morning before running to my appointment... then again before heading to the office... Tonight I checked the level before leaving work and it was FULL????? Still Full when I got home???? Ill check it in the morning before I go to work, and will have the other side of the garage shifted to get her in for possible Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now