Heat won't blow out of front vents

[mintFestiva]

Hi,

It got so cold today that I decided to use my heater. However, I noticed that hot air blows out of every vent except the front 4. Air blows out of these front 4, but it never gets hot. My defrost and floor vents work just fine, but not the front vents.

This doesn't make any sense to me. I would understand if I was getting NO air out of the front 4 that maybe a vent flap was broken.

Does anyone have any ideas?

[Spike]

Howdy there.

Festivas only have heat vents from the floor and windshield areas. I thought the same thing last winter, but a quick search told me nothing was wrong - except that I was freezing!

Sorry to burst your bubble. :p

[hotfordcat]

Asked and answered many times on here!!! Search button is your friend. Hot air never blows out of those four vents!!!!

[mintFestiva]

Interesting.... Wonder what the rationale was behind that design idea?

[Spike]

Well, we drove a '77 Dodge van forever, and it didn't have but windshield and floor vents.. I guess it just goes with the basic scheme of the car?

Personally, I use one of those cheesy 12 volt heaters during the REALLY cold days, mounted on the dash. Though, I try not to use them too much - they aren't meant for heat, but for defrost.

[GenevaDirt]

Well, we drove a '77 Dodge van forever, and it didn't have but windshield and floor vents.. I guess it just goes with the basic scheme of the car?

Personally, I use one of those cheesy 12 volt heaters during the REALLY cold days, mounted on the dash. Though, I try not to use them too much - they aren't meant for heat, but for defrost.

Shouldn't need anything else if everything is good with your system...just the right thermostat for winter use. Partially plugged heater core could be part of problem if you have low heat.

[KingFish]

To keep the box as small as possible, very small compared to other units, the doors are really simplistic. If you look here, you can see the only way to direct air flow thru the heater core is to block off the flow to the dash vents with the vent door. The AC evap core would be in line just before the picture starts.



SO you can have heat thru the defrost and floor, or cool air thru the vents and floor. If you were to move the heater core to the evap core position, then you could have vents and floor in mix mode, but no defrost. Not very useful. Mabey if the heat/defrost door were fixed in the mid position, we could have all three, but no way to change selections. I need to get under the dash and look at the linkage to see if it could be redone to work.

That's my rant for the night.

[Spike]

Shouldn't need anything else if everything is good with your system...just the right thermostat for winter use. Partially plugged heater core could be part of problem if you have low heat.

I replaced the thermostat near the end of winter, and my heat got lots better. The reason I ended up using the defroster is because my passenger side window regulator was broken, and the window was down 2 inches (was lazy and replaced whole door!)..

So, yeah. It was pretty darn cold.

[TominMO]

Even a 180-degree thermostat is adequate, if your heater system is otherwise in good shape; bearing in mind that you are already wearing warm clothing if you are using the heater anyway! But a 192 is significantly better.

[hotfordcat]

You need to use the two stage thermostat from Mazda. Aftermarket ones are wrong. Here's the part number you need...F201-15-171A

[TominMO]

You need to use the two stage thermostat from Mazda. Aftermarket ones are wrong. Here's the part number you need...F201-15-171A

The two-stage is NOT necessary. The Stant thermostats are fine. I'd recommend the (slightly) more expensive one--better metal.