Heater

[Monkeyzak]

Dont know

Dont know and

Dont know...........

I am not the best TEchical.

Can I just fill up the coolant with water??? I leave when its dark, get home when its dark, and not really got anywhere to check it at work. I will bring a torch tomorrow.

Cooling fan. DOnt know. I presume so. It is always a constant temperature.

As for the pipes. I remember from a life time ago and having a ford capri. (classy) THats a thermostat thing??? Not checked that. Is that the pipes at the top and bottom of the radiators??? And should they get warm at the same time. Defo weekend jobs this week!!! Unless I can do it in not much time in the morning and with my torch!!!

[LAA69]

Water level is easy, expansion tank at front, just to the left of the Rad.

Matrix hoses - just to the right of the engine at the rear of the bay, they sit side by side and disappear through the bulkhead.

Check those as easy starts.

What mileage you got on your Rolla ?

[Monkeyzak]

63000. I'm the second owner. Full TOyota Service History till 2 years ago.

Its in decent nick but spent all its life by the beach on Scotlands East COast. So lots of salt, wind and rain. And you can tell underneath and on anything that tarnishes

Does it matter if I add the same colour of coolant. Presumably if its manky, I wont be able to tell.

Really want to get this fixed. Aparently its going to -4 tonight. I actually had a kilt on today for a thing at my work. THose leather seats were cold on bit you dont want to be cold!!!!

Granted thats my kilt wearing over for another year. But still good to get it fixed!!!!

Will check both before setting off tomorrow.

Let you know how I go.

Cheers

Del

[LAA69]

Ok so fairly low mileage, only asked that for life expectancy etc

Manky coolant is one thing, if it is then change it, but a good level is better than none.

Let us know anyhow.

[Monkeyzak]

Am i embarassed to write this??????? Yes................but here goes........

Popped the bonnet.............BUT..couldnt find the safetly clip to let me lift it. Slipped my hands all along until they were filthy. Still no sign of the wee clip inder the bonnet. Was too dark too see and forgot to lift my torch,.

Where actually is the saftey catch on this??

Yep. Technical genius. :(

[LAA69]

It's just to the right of the centre/front of the Bonnet .... Honestly ....

As for your dilemma ........... No Comment ...... :lol2: :lol2:

[Monkeyzak]

OK...........finally!!

I checked the coolant. It was a bit low but not too bad so I topped it up.

I ran the engine till it was at normal operating temp. The 2 pipes at the back right hand side that go through to the dashboard (are those the ones for the heater matrix). They were freezing cold.

Could that mean my thermostats playing up. The heating comes through when I'm driving faster so it the thermostat possibly opening at too high a temp??

Thanks

[LAA69]

Has it been serviced regular ?

Keep an eye on that water level.

Its strange that it gets warm when you are moving, does it get warm if you sit stationary but rev the engine?

Cold pipes is not a good sign, read back through this thread and try flushing the Matrix, possibly blocked.

Keep the info comming.

[Monkeyzak]

I'll stick it into the local garage when the Mrs finishes Uni in a week and use her car. Hopefully its nothing serious.

Is the Matrix a nightmare to get out??? Is there access to it or is it a full dash out job?

Car was serviced 3 months ago. And its got a pretty good stamp book

Not tried revving the engine at stop. Also, the fan didnt come on, but it was freezing cold.

[FoxX]

Shouldnt matter if the matrix is blocked, the pipes still shouldnt be cold going through the back of the firewall.

If your fan isnt coming on when the engine is hot and your not moving, yea i'd probably guess the thermostat isnt opening. But check the large pipes going in and out of the radiator at the front of the engine to confirm. Otherwise possibly a circulation issue? water pump gone?

[LAA69]

Certainly appears to be some kind of circulation problem, is why i asked about heat when stationery and revving.

I believe the dash has to come out to get at the Matrix, thats from what T said to me.

[morgie]

Hi

The Reverse flush needs to be done for a length of time. I hope you got good flow out of it. If that hasnt fixed it then its got to be your thermostat. As you have also done the coolant change bleed the air our over the next 60 miles or so regularly as the bubbles move from the corepiping to the radiator & see if that improves anything. watch the water level closely in the radiator, not the expansion tank as it is usually false after a coolant change & doesnt always show true level. Just remove the rad cap & you can easily see the water level directly & refill as needed. For me it was my thermostat that did the job for me. cost just £23 plus 7 quid for the v-ribbed belt which i thought i may as well do as the orld serpentine belt started to show cracks. I dont remember if you mentioned both inlet/outlet pipes being equally hot? take out the glove box from the passenger side & check the temperature of the pipes there. I dont think your diverter is faulty. you have 4 possibilities. bad heater core, bad stat, massive air lock in the core or diverter(which i dont think is bad). The heater circuit really is that simple.

Hi all - sorry I've been a little delayed in replying, I've been away with very limited internet access, back now to a rather cold TS.

molveees - The reverse flush was done for ~10 minutes and was flowing well at a mixture of pressures. I'll take up your advice on bleeding the air and monitoring the radiator level as well. The inlet and outlet pipes both seemed hot, although from memory I think the outlet seemed slightly cooler - I will check this again from behind the glove box. I think my next step will be to take the car to Toyota for diagnosis.

LAA69 - Glad your problems where finally sorted. Could also be the matrix for me.

Monkeyzak - Your symptoms sound slightly different, be interested to see the outcome.

[Tsporter]

I've got heat!!

Brought it up to my mechanic and he had a look. Said he flushed the radiator, etc and thats sorted it! Not so bad getting in the TS at half 5 these mornings now!

[morgie]

Tsporter - great news, enjoy the heat B)

molveees - I've bleed the air and monitored (and topped up as appropriate) the radiator and expansion tank. The inlet pipes behind the glove box are definitely extremely hot.

I called up some local garages yesterday. One with an electronic reader reluctantly recommended that I'd have to take the car to Toyota as the reader he has is limited and can't do things like the air con and heater. Is this true for everyone? I also called Toyota, they said they'd need me to authorize an hour (@ ~£100 I believe) but probably only need half of it to diagnose the problem. Any further diagnosis steps that can be recommended before I do that?

I think I've mentioned before, but one thing I find strange is that if the car is warmed up and the heater off, when putting my hand over one of the vents in the car it feels hot. As soon as I turn the climate control on the air just goes cool.

Failing any progress on the above, I may have found a cheaper solution...

[morgie]

I've taken the car for a bit of a longer run this weekend. The optimal settings seem to be to set the mode to the forward fans, heat to max and fan setting on the lowest setting. Once the engine is warmed up I can definitely feel warmth from all 4 front fans, but the moment I turn the fan setting up to blow harder the air turns luke warm. The air still feels slightly warmer on the passenger side compared to the drivers.

From the above and the fact that I have reverse flushed the matrix it would seem to suggest to me that the thermostat is OK, I don't think I have an air lock (radiator fluid looks good, no need for topping up now) and I'd think the matrix should be OK. Is it possible though that there's still an issue with the matrix, is being able to reverse flush it not necessarily enough to prove it should work correctly? Maybe another value is stuck? Thanks again in advance for any thoughts.

[morgie]

I thought it wouldn't do any harm to disconnect the Battery and leave it for 30 mins in case there was anything electrical that maybe needed to be "reset" (long shot I know, but I was also interested in resetting ECU). Anyway, no difference to air temp. One thing I did notice though was that in manually setting the temp to max and turning the fans on the air con automatically came on as well. I haven't experienced that before, not sure if it's usual or could point to another issue - any thoughts appreciated as always - thanks.

[Theorist]

not sure if im starting to get the problem too . the centre vents are nice and hot but the ones by window are only luke warm.is this the start of the problem?

[morgie]

The issue as it's normally seen is the air is only lukewarm to cold and that if anything the vents on the passenger side produce slightly warmer than the driver's side. This is probably due to the fact that the pipes from the engine come into the cabin on that side (behind the glove box), some photos of these in the engine are in an earlier post I made.

[Theorist]

ok thanks

[Theorist]

i think mine is ok at the moment but not quite as it should be . the left side vents are warm but not as warm as they should be and the right side middle one is warm but not as warm as it should be and the one on drivers side by the window is just luke warmish.the pipes going into the bulkhead are nice and hot. is the heater matrix a big job?

[morgie]

I finally got my car into Toyota this morning. They asked me to authorise an hour (~£111 inc VAT) but advised it could take 30 mins. They actually ended up spending 2hrs on it, but as agreed I was charged for the one hour.

I explained the history (as you can read in this thread), e.g.

PROBLEM:

* Only very weak heat is produced through the four main vents in the cabin when using the manual heater controls setting 1 bar on the fan speed and max heat for the temperature.

* If you start to turn the fan speed up (still on max heat) the air will turn luke warm/cold from all vents.

* When applying the above settings there is still greater warmth felt on the passenger side vents.

HISTORY:

* I've changed the coolant and reverse flushed the matrix. Nothing strange came out.

* Checked for air lock - nothing found.

* Checked the pipes leaving the radiator and leaving the engine compartment (as well as behind the glove box) - they're getting hot as you'd expect.

* Checked the cable for the heater unit and can hear the motorised movement.

DIAGNOSIS WORK BY TOYOTA TODAY:

1.) Confirmed the problem.

2.) Confirmed matrix pipes are hot as expected.

3.) Swapped the aircon amplifier from a donor car - made no difference.

4.) Removed foot well trims to gain access to the heater box and confirmed the temperature motor was moving,

The next step they'd like to carry out is to strip the dash down to confirm the "heat box flap" isn't stuck or similar. They also had "issues" with their computer system so were unable to check other dealership's cases and notes in detail, I think I will call back in the week to see if they can follow up on this. Currently I've been quoted for 2 alternative approaches as next steps:

QUOTES FOR NEXT STEPS:

OPTION 1 - 4hrs labour to strip down the dash and hope it's just a flap stuck or similar. Sounds wishful thinking and there's no guarantee that the visual inspection would lead to a fix.

OPTION 2 - 7hrs labour plus new heater box (I was told this includes the matrix). The part alone is £939.41 (inc VAT), add 7hrs labour and I may as well buy a second car to drive when I need heat! Again, no guarantee that this would fix it.

I don't really see either of these as viable. For now I might have to stick with it. I might give it another reverse flush just because it can't really hurt and reading back it looks like the second reverse flush for FoxX did the job(?)

Am I right that if it were just the matrix there's no need to strip down the dash? Can anyone explain how the heater box and matrix relate to one another? The part that they have quoted for has the part number Y87050-02050

I'm also wondering if there are any new updates from anyone else? (For reference another similar thread here - Heaters Not Getting Hot, great time of year to pack up).

[FoxX]

I don't really see either of these as viable. For now I might have to stick with it. I might give it another reverse flush just because it can't really hurt and reading back it looks like the second reverse flush for FoxX did the job(?)

I'm afraid its back to luke warm for me, solution only worked for about 4 days.

As I mentioned, the water that came out was cloudy / bitty so i'm back to theory of blocked heater matrix, maybe thermostat as I dont find my fan is kicking in very often - but that wouldnt explain why it was ok for a few days. Sounds to me like i'd dislodged some gunk temporarily and now its back in place with the water flowing back in the correct direction. Bear in mind that my first reverse flush didnt bear any result at all so it might be worth a try.

My hose pipe is frozen, dont know about yours :)

I'm pretty set on getting a facelift T sport (preferably red :) ) in the next few months though, so i'll just put up with it for a bit longer as its enough to heat the windscreen during this cold snap. I'd rather buy a new car than spend over £1000 fixing my old one, that repair bill sounds nasty.

[Theorist]

can anyone explain to me where the stop ***** is for draining the coolant please? thanks .

[morgie]

...Bear in mind that my first reverse flush didnt bear any result at all so it might be worth a try.

Yeah, nothing really to lose by trying it.

My hose pipe is frozen, dont know about yours :)

Not frozen here....for now.

I'm pretty set on getting a facelift T sport (preferably red :) ) in the next few months though, so i'll just put up with it for a bit longer as its enough to heat the windscreen during this cold snap. I'd rather buy a new car than spend over £1000 fixing my old one, that repair bill sounds nasty.

Yup, no real point sinking that much cash into the car. Are you planning to trade it in?

can anyone explain to me where the stop ***** is for draining the coolant please? thanks .

If you open the bonnet and remove the plastic cover from above the radiator you can see it on the side of the radiator at the bottom on the right.

[Theorist]

thanks mate