Heat issue

[Mercilesslee]

Hey guys my festiva only blows heat when its on the window defrost setting. Once I try to heat up my feet or use any other vent it blows cold. Any ideas?

Thank You

[Prafeston]

Heat only works on the defrost and feet. You should feel it coming out from the center console on each side toward the feet area. If you aren't getting heat there I'm not sure what the problem is.

[Bert]

There are wire-activated diverters or baffles inside the heating system and they are connected to the dash controls. Could be yours have become disconnected somehow.

[bravekozak]

If you do not have A/C, you may have twenty years of dirt and dust buildup in the fins of your heater core. Festivas never had cabin air filters to block road dust and pine needles. If you had A/C, the fins of the evaporator core would be plugged instead. Do a search on this topic. It has been asked and answered many times before.

[valelotax]

OMG! Mine does this too! I have factory A/C and the heat only works on defrost or defrost/feet. I didn't know if I was the only one that had this problem, so never started a thread. It blow's COLD COLD air even if it is on the highest heat setting when it is selected on the other settings.

Hehe, never mind, just looked at it, not supposed to blow hot heat throught the vents.

[Mercilesslee]

hahah yeah i just found that out too. Oh well problems solved i guess

[Lannis]

I didn't realize that either, I thought BOTH my Festy's had the same problem. I about worried one shop to death telling them it was broken till I realized that that's the way it worked ....

Lannis

[bravekozak]

I disconnected my heater core since I only drive it in warm weather. I will only worry if my A/C doesn't work. I put a small looping piece of hose over the two heater core tubes sticking out of the firewall, to protect them. My Festiva is almost an antique now. Nobody recognizes it any more and I have only seen two others on the roads in the last three years. Any car will always last a long time without exposure to road salt. I must admit that the controls and design of the Festiva blower assembly is rather different.