[oohsam]

Hey guys,
Got a 96 vit, heater is cactus, only blows out cold air. its getting bloody cold in melbourne, plus I need to demist the hot steam coming outta my head onto the windscreen!

Where should I start and what is most problematic here.

Heater Tap, heater core? Any way to quickly diagnose this or find the faulty part.

When I first bought the car i remeber there was a tiny bit of heat coming out, but it went to nothing quickly...thinking the core may be blocked.

LIke most cars, do i have to remove the entire front dash to replace the heater core?
In my old ford, I could run a hose into the inlet of the core and see if water came out...could also easily test the tap inline.

any help appreciated.

[royce]

no heater tap, coolant always flows

do you have levers for the controls or buttons? if levers pull the hot cold one back and forward and see if you can figure what flap its moving and if it needs adjusting, also see if both pipes out the firewall are hot, could indicate a blockage if they arent

[oohsam]

Thanks man,
Its levers. I'm gonna head out there now and see if the pipes heat up.

Might try and hose through the heater core.

[oohsam]

OK. So I pulled out the hoses going to the heater core and took the hose to it and rinsed out alot of brown gunk.
Got good flow going through the core.
drained the radiator and the radiator reserve. The previous owner used water not coolant which shits me...but that's OK.
Removed the thermostat, had a spare one handy so changed that over. Used gasket stripper to clean up the seals
Hosed through the thermostat housing to wash any residue out and drain any other water in the block.
Put it all back and started the car then filled the coolant up to ensure no air pockets. Had the heater on hot also. Took it for a drive and I have heat now. Its not blazing hot but its hot enough to warm up the cabin nicely. I reckon the core is stuffed due to the water being used probably rusted out...I doubt it was distilled water in there.....will change it one day but for now I'm good.

Cheers

[Bucketload]

Any tips for a dipshit like me who put a screw on the dash and saw it disappear down the vent, now the heater switch only goes about two thirds of the way to the right (the hot part). Stainless screw too, so magnets aren’t going to help, really don’t want to pull the dash out?

[royce]

if the switch only moves so far its probably got the screw on top of it, later vits you pop the heater knobs off and grab and pull the control fascia and it pops off, I think earlier ones are similar, if not its easy to pull that dash panel off and retrieve the screw, or at least knock it from where it is

[SCYT]

Hi all, I recently purchased my first Suzuki. It is a '93 Vitara JX. I have a problem with my heater as well, it's constantly blowing cold air. Being a real noob, can someone point me in the direction of trying to fix this problem? I have checked the coolant and it's full. I can't seem to find the heater valve thing. Pictures of what to look out for would be appreciated. And I think one of the hoses might be chopped off?! Thanks in advance.

[ozhummer]

I just finished a full restoration on my Vitara (pics will be posted) - anyway, as part of the resto I completely restored the whole vent/air cond system. Its quite easy to do and the results very rewarding.

If you allocate a full weekend, I reckon you could pull the dash out, pull all the vent systems and rebuild it all.THis includes flushing the heater and ac cores. If there is enough interest I will put together a full description of how to do it ...

[SCYT]

ozhummer wrote:

I just finished a full restoration on my Vitara (pics will be posted) - anyway, as part of the resto I completely restored the whole vent/air cond system. Its quite easy to do and the results very rewarding.

If you allocate a full weekend, I reckon you could pull the dash out, pull all the vent systems and rebuild it all.THis includes flushing the heater and ac cores. If there is enough interest I will put together a full description of how to do it ...

That would be greatly appreciated. After taking a closer look, I reckon both the heater inlet and outlet have been chopped off I will need some pointers on where to connect the hoses.

[Ausuki]

it was probably disconnected because the heater core was leaking,