Toyota Carina ED 1.8L Over Heating Now Heater Not working

[toyta]

Hi all, I have a Toyota Carina ED 1.8L Auto, done 110K. Last night it started over heating, temp gauge going up and then suddenly came down to normal. I parked it and this afternoon checked the radiator, there was no coolant/water. Also, heater not working. I topped it up with distilled water and now it is running fine but heater working intermittently. Temp gauge steady at about half but when I opened the bonnet to check, radiator hose and engine still very hot? Is it normal? Planning to take it to a mechanic, suggestions welcome please as don't want a huge bill being a student. At the moment, I have filled water in the radiator and it is running fine, temperature gauge ok but heater works only sometimes and to me the engine and radiator hose feel very hot when I open the bonnet. Thanks

[Mr Revhead]

Sounds like it ran very low on coolant and was getting air bubbles going through it.
Any sign of leaks? Water has to go somewhere.

[deaf_rattle]

Any sign of leaks? Water has to go somewhere.

out the overflow?

[CelicaGT8]

THERMOSTAT?

[AE86less]

Bleed the cooling system? Airlocks in the heater pipes after refilling?

[MAGN1T]

Don't put water in it, use the proper antifreeze ratio, otherwise it'll corrode and you'll end up with a leaking headgasket.
Topping up with distilled water is totally pointless as you've got impurities in there already.

Steve

[rollaholic]

water is fine in the short term, till you fix your problem. just make sure you do fix it, or ^ magnit will have his way with ya.

when you say the heater works intermittently, i presume the fan blows full time, just the air is cool sometimes? if so, chances are you have air in there somewhere.

the engine and hoses do get very hot, most thermostats open around 82 degrees. certainly makes plenty of spots uncomfortable to touch for more than a few seconds.

its not hard to check thermostat operation, and would be a good place to start. you can also try and bleed out your potential airlock at the same time.

whereabouts in the country are you? im sure someone will be able to recommend a mechanic, or offer you a hand themselves. i'd be happy to take a look myself if you are in the right part of the world.

[toyta]

Hi,thanks for the replies everyone. I am in East Auckland, Howick area, showed it to a mechanic he has quoted $130, water is leaking form the engine, it is visible. He showed me, says some gasket needs replacing and he will top it up with right coolant afterwards and test the pressure? Does that sound right?

[rollaholic]

sounds very reasonable to me, considering the alternative is a leak that could cost you an engine.

[toyta]

Mechanic had it for the full day today, says all fixed. Picked up just now,no leaks but temperature went from cold to almost half immediately, after driving about 100 m and heater still not working, it was definitely working before? Mechanic says heater not working has nothing to do with the water leaking problem? Any ideas. comments?

[MAGN1T]

Another Effing idiot mechanic?
He probably put a bottle of chemiweld into it.

Steve

[Mr Revhead]

Mechanic had it for the full day today, says all fixed. Picked up just now,no leaks but temperature went from cold to almost half immediately, after driving about 100 m and heater still not working, it was definitely working before? Mechanic says heater not working has nothing to do with the water leaking problem? Any ideas. comments?

Did you ask him what he thought the heater issue was?
Warming up that fast is probably because it was already hot!

[gt4dude]

I've had this problem with a few Toyotas including my GT4,

(And Carina and Celica use alot of the same shit in the ST20X series)

when the system overheats or boils over I've found commonly that the 1. old thermostats get stuck, 2. old radiator caps warp their seals allowing hot antifreeze to escape and 3. the heater core gets clogged with sludge from old antifreeze and corrosion crap..

No doubt your mechanic didn't flush the heater core...

I could show you how to do it at a car wash, or if you want to attempt yourself.... you need to pull the heater hoses off the firewall, then put a small lenth of hose on the exit port (for reverse flush to knock away crap) then wedge in the nozzle of the pressure blaster from the car wash just set it to high pressure water, i use clamps too so all the pressure goes through the heater core.

the first thing that comes flying out is a big wad of gunk, followed by water, just run it through for a min or 2 till its clear

after that, top up radiator to replenish lost coolant and fire it up, once that needle is 1/4 way up to hot then ahhhhhhh beautiful heat

[Mr Revhead]

I've had this problem with a few Toyotas including my GT4,

(And Carina and Celica use alot of the same shit in the ST20X series)

when the system overheats or boils over I've found commonly that the 1. old thermostats get stuck, 2. old radiator caps warp their seals allowing hot antifreeze to escape and 3. the heater core gets clogged with sludge from old antifreeze and corrosion crap..

Actually I would say those things have lead to the overheating.

Also I would seriously NOT recommend sticking a pressure washer through your heater hoses Tap pressure is more than enough.

[gt4dude]

tap water without pressure or resistance doesnt get it out. i remember doing so the first time, i managed to get some heat by redlining the engine in 3rd gear... not quite what you want.

No. You need to pressure blast it, move all the gunk out and you'll have beautiful heat at 1/4 temp and idle engine.

[Mr Revhead]

If it's that clogged you have issues.
I've never failed to clear a clogged core by back flushing with tap pressure.
There isn't that much pressure to build it up so you do not need to risk damage by putting lots of psi through it. remember if it has that much gunk it something has corroded ans now possibly weakened.

Also after back flushing the core I block the hose off so it back washes the block too. Drain the rad/block via the rad drain after wards

[gt4dude]

I do them all separate, and use the tap water with everything else...

first the turbo water inlet with just a 12mm connector, then garden spray attachment wedges great into the top rad hose, exiting thru the tstat housing with tstat removed, then finally the radiator itself.

take it for a drive to washworld and blast out the heatercore.

[BZG Wagon]

Clogged heater core?

Have a squeeze of the water pipes comming off the rear of the engine going into the heater core. If they feel 'crunchy' or like they have grit in them then you'll need to flush the engine / radiator and take off all the pipes off for cleaning. Flushing a radiator does nothing if you haven't cleaned all the remaining crap out of the system.

[rollaholic]

if the gauge is at half, and both of those hoses going into the firewall are good and hot, then chances are you have an issue inside your heater box with a flap not moving or similar.

but from what you say about it working earlier, i'd be more inclined to go with a blocked core or an airlock. good gauge but no hot air always freaks me out because it potentially means no water in the core, which means no water in your engine pretty much.

dont put a high pressure hose into it, garden hose on full noise will be heaps.

see how it goes getting up to temp in the morning after its had a chance to get cold.

[gt4dude]

its not that big a deal, look at your water elbow, and look where water is most likely gonna go, the heater inlet and outlet are higher than the radiator inlet, and like 1/8th of the size

its only gonna take a little bit of gunk to upset the operation of the heater, yeah you can do it with tap water too, but you have to throttle the other end of the hose to build up pressure in the system to shoot out all the gunk otherwise theres still remains in the bottom of the heater core.

running a coolant flush for example, seems to shift all the crap from inside the engine to the heater core as i noticed after hitting the prescribed driving distance for running bars rust, my heater went cold, and i had just blasted out my heater core and engine with water prior to running bars rust