Tuesday, October 25, 2011

My 04 pontiac gto isnt putting out heat like it used to.?

the heat isnt as hot as it was about a year ago. im thinking its the thermostat. how often are thermostats typically changed? my car has 48,000 miles and is well maintained?
My 04 pontiac gto isnt putting out heat like it used to.?
Water boils at a higher temperature than antifreeze, so its important, too use the right mixture of coolant to water. Their are 2-different types as well, use the one for your particular car. Make sure you check the exact freeze point mixture, this will effect heat effeciency. use a syphon type gage thru the resorviour after your car has operated for awhile, and the fluid is well mixed. this gage will determine the protection level, and operating temp. (if it doesnt match the thermostat)ie. is pure water,your themostat may never close, if the mixure is too much antifreeze your thermostat may open much less frequently,(usually 50/50 mixture) and still not be hot enough, in addition you probably have an electric fan which also has an operating temp. range, based on a sensor in the radiator, somewhere at the bottom. Lastly remove the leaves or anything, that may be blocking, your heater core, and you may want too reverse flush your system. I had a car one time where it kept overheating, and I wonder if the heater core was at fault, because I was only getting cool air out, even when the car overheated. The problem was their was no circulation in the system,because the heater core was plugged,calcified and rusted internally. Good Luck!
My 04 pontiac gto isnt putting out heat like it used to.?
I'd not only check the coolant level, check the coolant's quality and mixture 50/50 with a proper anti-freeze tester, be sure that the engine is cold when you do this and the tester reads a good -40c.









Hope that helps and best of luck.By the way if the summer was quite hot and the coolant burned off water etc it could be quite low and require testing and more anti-freeze, you can buy the tester from walmarts etc for about 10 bucks.Also if the weather in your are is extremely cold then you can mix it 60/40 or to about -48c but don't mix it more then that ever.
You might try backflush the heater core, the holes in it are a lot smaller then the radiator, tend to clog up. I usually just take the heater hoses off the engine, put a hose to it from both direction til it runs clear. If you have too take them off the heater core itself, be very careful, a lot of them are plastic, and break very easily!
check your coolant level alot of times its alil low and that will fix the problem atleast its been the case with me a few times make sure car is not hot and check to see if the radiater is full then also check the over flow and fill that as well