1997 Toyota Camry 4-Door Sedan Automatic LE
I turned on the heater after months of Texas heat and to my surprise it's just blowing air, no heat. It's never had this problem before and the A/C is working just fine. There are no issue with over heating, the car is running excellent other than this heat issue now. I am handy and would first like to check into the issue myself before I decide to take it to a shop. What are the common suspects that I should first address?
EDIT
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For those of you who don't want to read this entire thread here is the summary. While trying to resolve the heat issue the car developed an oil spill that would be about 5...10 in. in diameter, RHS behind the front wheel.
With the help of TN we did a bunch of diagnostics in elimination method to go from simplest/least expensive towards a complex/costly solution. This was great for me as cost was most important.
Some of the tests were
-While driving down hill on the highway does the temp gauge fluctuate, mine stayed steady.
-Did the 2 Heater Core pipes feel hot to touch after a drive, yes they were.
-Is the coolant reservoir bubbling, no it wasn't
-Is the car over heating, no, gauge stayed steady as always at just about halfway marks.
-Drain coolant, turn heat to high, fan engaged to high and hose the raditor. No noticeable gunk came out other than some.
-Install new coolant, any change? None.
-Remove HC unit, hose it. Yes some flaked debris came out. Re-installed but no change.
-Remove HC unit pour cold water and feel the entire unit by hand. Replace with hot water and again feel the unit. The diagonal upper part of the unit was more hot than the diagonal lower bottom. Emptying it a little debris would still flow out. See here.
-After this concluded this HC was bad and ordered a new one.
Another key test was
-Measure the amount of water the unit was able to hold (4.5-5oz) vs known capacity or a new one (more than twice). Photo result is here and here, read here and here.
The oil spill problem,
Solution was to remove the Camshaft, Crank and Oil Pump seals. I wasted a lot of time removing the Hamonica Balancer. I found the "Bump method." The special tools I used were
-Clutch wrench rented from AZ (This here is the suggested alternative, or you can DIY your own)
AZ does not come with bolts, I had to get hardened bolts from HomeDepot. Amazon version comes complete
-Harmonica Balancer Installer AZ rental
-This -> Impact wrench $34 from HFT
-This ->Torque wrench $11.99 from HFT
I turned on the heater after months of Texas heat and to my surprise it's just blowing air, no heat. It's never had this problem before and the A/C is working just fine. There are no issue with over heating, the car is running excellent other than this heat issue now. I am handy and would first like to check into the issue myself before I decide to take it to a shop. What are the common suspects that I should first address?
EDIT
-----
For those of you who don't want to read this entire thread here is the summary. While trying to resolve the heat issue the car developed an oil spill that would be about 5...10 in. in diameter, RHS behind the front wheel.
With the help of TN we did a bunch of diagnostics in elimination method to go from simplest/least expensive towards a complex/costly solution. This was great for me as cost was most important.
Some of the tests were
-While driving down hill on the highway does the temp gauge fluctuate, mine stayed steady.
-Did the 2 Heater Core pipes feel hot to touch after a drive, yes they were.
-Is the coolant reservoir bubbling, no it wasn't
-Is the car over heating, no, gauge stayed steady as always at just about halfway marks.
-Drain coolant, turn heat to high, fan engaged to high and hose the raditor. No noticeable gunk came out other than some.
-Install new coolant, any change? None.
-Remove HC unit, hose it. Yes some flaked debris came out. Re-installed but no change.
-Remove HC unit pour cold water and feel the entire unit by hand. Replace with hot water and again feel the unit. The diagonal upper part of the unit was more hot than the diagonal lower bottom. Emptying it a little debris would still flow out. See here.
-After this concluded this HC was bad and ordered a new one.
Another key test was
-Measure the amount of water the unit was able to hold (4.5-5oz) vs known capacity or a new one (more than twice). Photo result is here and here, read here and here.
The oil spill problem,
Solution was to remove the Camshaft, Crank and Oil Pump seals. I wasted a lot of time removing the Hamonica Balancer. I found the "Bump method." The special tools I used were
-Clutch wrench rented from AZ (This here is the suggested alternative, or you can DIY your own)
AZ does not come with bolts, I had to get hardened bolts from HomeDepot. Amazon version comes complete
-Harmonica Balancer Installer AZ rental
-This -> Impact wrench $34 from HFT
-This ->Torque wrench $11.99 from HFT