radiator cap seal - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

760tito · 11-19-2011, 10:27 AM

ugh i have been wondering why my heater has not been working (for over a year) heatercore is free flowing, the temp control vavle opens and closes. i noticed the hoses going to the heater core have not been getting hot so i did a total system flush. well after some reaserch i found if your radiator cap is bad i guess the pressure doesnt build up enough for the heater to get proper flow? anyway i noticed the part of the radiator that the cap seals at was very very uneven. i got my demel out and smoothed it out as best i could and now i am feeling some heat out of the vents but nowhere near what it should be. i am begining to think the radiator cap seal area is my problem? is there a way to fix this? also the fluid has gotten brown rather quickly since my last flush about 5 months ago. ii was thinking that the faulty seal was cooking my coolant? sorry for the long post but i am lost at this point. thanks

760tito · 11-20-2011, 10:06 AM

well i drove it to work today and i must say the air coming out of the vents was quite warm today! i did notice if i had the fan on full blast it seemed to lose some heat but its way way better then before. im gonna guess it was a faulty radiator cap seal. on a side note if i left the fan in the first or second position it was hot. so im happy with that for now

speedy25 · 11-20-2011, 11:30 AM

A pressurized cooling system will not affect the heater core flow. It IS blocked.

-SP

760tito · 11-20-2011, 10:26 PM

Well I done think its blocked because I hooked up my water hose the the heater core and water flushed thru it. I even actuated the temp valve and water stop and started so im assuming the heater core is ok. I did leave the hoses to the heater core unattached and ran the car and coolant pumped out of the lower outlet on the thermostat housing not the upper. It made me think maybe I had the hoses crossed because I have the upper outer on the housing plumbed into the upper outlet in the Heater core. The upper hose also has the temp valve. Is this the right orientation? It is blowing hot air out now, maybe not what it should be but its a huge improvement