Poor heat output

[Scott64pw]

Full flush and Fleet Final Charge Pro. It's also red, but no association to mopar orange/red/purple variants. Mopar shot themselves in the foot when they made red that was kinda like orange, and then a different red that was incompatible with the other red, and then a purple that fades to orange/red, which is kinda like dexcool orange.

Five years, flush and refresh.

View attachment 92210

I guess it's the inorganic that keeps the old stuff from breaking down??

 

[johnmyster]

I guess it's the inorganic that keeps the old stuff from breaking down??

IATs have a lifespan too.

 

[Scott64pw]

The coolant flush fixed my problem. Thank you for all the support. You guys saved me money, but more importantly saved me having to tear into my dash.

I do wonder if it was the coolant breaking down or sand casting remnants.

 

[johanh13]

Now I need to find the time to flush mine to see if it fixes it too! Thanks for the update

 

[Scott64pw]

Now I need to find the time to flush mine to see if it fixes it too!

I ended up getting a local shop to do it for me. He said he had all attachments to make it easy, etc, so I don’t think it was a big deal for them. It would have taken me all day, I’m sure.

 

[johanh13]

I just flushed mine, the flow was not impeded at all. I used water then blew it out with air; made no difference on mine ... ARGH

 

[Scott64pw]

I just flushed mine, the flow was not impeded at all. I used water then blew it out with air; made no difference on mine ... ARGH

Man..sorry to hear that. Did you have the actuators checked?

 

[johanh13]

Man..sorry to hear that. Did you have the actuators checked?

I googled how to 'recalibrate' and that did not work. It blows air according to the HVAC settings, only it's always cold on the drivers side. Passenger side is warm ....

 

[Scott64pw]

I googled how to 'recalibrate' and that did not work. It blows air according to the HVAC settings, only it's always cold on the drivers side. Passenger side is warm ....

When I had the dealer diagnose mine, they used their tool to command each actuator independently and verify they are moving…if you checked that, it seems like it must be a clog. You could try some chemicals to try to break down the deposits….but others here know more than me.

 

[johanh13]

When I had the dealer diagnose mine, they used their tool to command each actuator independently and verify they are moving…if you checked that, it seems like it must be a clog. You could try some chemicals to try to break down the deposits….but others here know more than me.

when I connected my water hose, there was unimpeded flow, then I also used compressed air, both directions... did not seem clogged at all

 

[johanh13]

when I connected my water hose, there was unimpeded flow, then I also used compressed air, both directions... did not seem clogged at all

I did notice a small change, the air was barely warm, so I flushed it again. I drained all the coolant, put in about 4 gallons of distilled water, drove it till it was 100% warmed up. Drained it again and refilled with new coolant. Now it's blowing warm air. So it likely is my core....

 

[Scott64pw]

I did notice a small change, the air was barely warm, so I flushed it again. I drained all the coolant, put in about 4 gallons of distilled water, drove it till it was 100% warmed up. Drained it again and refilled with new coolant. Now it's blowing warm air. So it likely is my core....

Awesome news. Based on what others are saying I was thinking that the core only has one inlet and one outlet and parallel paths for the coolant to flow internally. It sounds like it may have some stuck sediment at the bottom. If there was a way to let some chemicals sit in there and then do a flush, it might fix it 100%. Glad it’s working somewhat.

 

[Scott64pw]

I'm going to do another heater core flush with a chemical soak this time....seems it's grabbing deposits again. Which hose is the inlet and which is the outlet to the heater core? From what I can tell, it looks like the top is the inlet to the heater core, but I'd like someone to confirm.

 

[Scott64pw]

I was able to perform the heater core flush today. It's now putting out better heat than when I purchased the truck used....so I'd say it was a success. I used Prestone AS105 coolant flush and let it sit in there for a couple hours. Then reversed and forward flushed with water. I got quite a bit of debris out of it.

When trying to get the hoses disconnected, I broke the clips on the plastic bracket holding the heater core hoses to the engine. I purchased a new mopar hose assembly from the dealer, but that is definitely not required after looking at it. I wanted to post some pictures in case anyone else runs into the same issue. I think you could drill out the plastic piece and zip tie it or something. Hopefully these pictures will help someone in the future. By the time I got mine out, I just put in the new one because I was tired of messing with it. It's an expensive stupid fee. The bracket clips are pretty flimsy, so I'm not surprised I broke it. The zip ties were on my original part and the new part, so I guess they come that way from the factory. The zip ties dont appear to do much if anything, but I added them back anyway with mopar red zip ties .

As far as equipment, I used 5/8" nylon hoses connected to the heater core hoses with a union connector. I used a Hromee Water heater cleaning flushing tool. It was quite nice because it has a hose hookup and an air compressor hookup. I was able to fully purge each fluid at each step.

 

[Scott64pw]

Here are a few more pictures

 

[Scott64pw]

To take this to the Nth degree, I filtered that crap to see what it was. It has the consistency of sand but the color of rust with some metal pieces in there.