heater problems

[opie]

I have a 1990 festiva the heater works fine on defrost and in the floor but when I put it on face vents, it blows cold, so whats the problem. How do I get it to blow heat. Another thing, why does it take so long for festivas to warm up

[mattswabb]

Mine blows heat thru the vents all summer.

The heat comes out the floor and defrost only in the festiva.

[elcamino1]

You can't get heat through dash vents,ask mazda or kia, put a peice of cardboard in front of your radiator will help

[monkeyracing]

It won't blow warm air through the dash vents? Really? I guess this explains why I froze all the way home after buying my car last Saturday. I thought it was just another thing that needed fixing.

[opie]

heater problems

thanks, what does cardboard in front of the radiator do?

[Bowls]

Uhh it will block the air being blow onto the engine... Therein, ur engine will heat up and ur engine will only get hotter.
I also don't get hot air through the vents only the defrost and feet, i only have the third setting to use on mine, first and second don't work.
If anyone knows, why does it take so long to heat up festiva's?

[htchbck]

You're never gonna get hot air outta the front vents. I had to replace my heater core recently and I had the whole heater/blower motor assembly taken apart. The way the blower motor sits in the casing, it only sucks air for the top vents from the top side of the assembly, and the heater core is on the bottom... without taking apart the dash and rerouting the defrost vent piping into the front vents its never gonna blow heat anywhere but on the windshield or the floor.

[Ffaf]

If you want the heater to blow hot air quicker, change the thermostat into one that kicks in at lower temperature or remove the thermostat completely.

[miami man]

my 93 festiva gives out good heat but my 1991 does not.

[Damkid]

or remove the thermostat completely.

please don't do that!!! the thermostat is there so the engine itself has a chance to warm up properly, the thermostat in my car is screwed, and takes forever for the engine to warm up because it's constantly circulating the coolant which slows the engine from warming up, if i had a good thermostat in it, it would have great heat

[oxbrain]

Also, since the heater core is inside the loop before the thermostat, you don't have to wait for it to open before getting heat.

A colder thermostat will make the engine run cooler, meaning less heat.

[gdawgs]

If you want the heater to blow hot air quicker, change the thermostat into one that kicks in at lower temperature or remove the thermostat completely.

As stated above, bad idea. Engines are designed to run at certain temps. Removing the thermostat makes the engine run cold and will cause pre-mature wear.

Also, if you wanted to have hotter air, you'd put in a higher rated thermostat, not lower.

However, in really cold temps, (say below zero), it wouldn't make any difference in a Festiva, since the engine never gets hot enough to open up the thermostat anyway. The air going through the heater core and air circulating around the engine bay is enough(actually too much) to cool the engine.

The only way to not get cold when it's -40 is to drive a different car.(or wear your snowmobile suit)

[bobstad]

Hey, here is another idea I'm thinking of trying. I used to have an old Chevy panel van I was trying to live out of and glued closed cell foam pads on its bare metal interior walls, made for using a sleeping bag on when on the snow or ice or just the cold ground.(a profound difference!)

If I glue these all inside my Festiva's inner sheet metal,(I had a bunch left over I've saved) which is exposed since I got rid of all the interior door panels and plastic(which is considered carcinegenic by the way) I think this should really make the heater have to work much less and conserve its meager amounts of heat.(air-cooled VWs, which have notoriously bad heaters, used to offer as an option a device which burnt gasoline that would practically fry people inside the vehicle...maybe there are variations on that sort of thing available...anyone ever read Alaskan poet Robert Service's THE CREMATION OF SAM McGEE?)