Not much heat coming out
Asked by elsmitro Nov 04, 2014 at 06:59 PM about the 2007 Dodge Nitro SLT 4WD
Question type: Maintenance & Repair
I don't know what to do, I've tried everything I can think of. I found and tested 3
actuator motors under the dash and the flaps they control. The motors were strong
and I could not prevent them from turning with my hands. I turned the knobs they
connect to with my hands and you can see (as much as possible) the arms and gears
they are connected to turn from one side and back and you can hear the flaps inside
opening and closing. I don't see any filters and the blower works fine. I unplugged the
blower and listened to the actuators doing there thing. Both of the heater core hoses
are hot but the outlet side is not as hot as the inlet. I disconnected the heater core
hoses and ran the water hose through the core full blast and it worked great, so that's
not plugged. I started the car before hooking the hoses back up and the water pumps
working great. There is a little heat out of the right side of the defrost but the middle
and drivers side are not at all hot. It's just got to be something preventing the blown
air from fully crossing the heater core but I'm not sure what. I see something
happening with the blend door and plastic gears toward the firewall. I guess I need a
picture of where that's supposed to be? Maybe the gears were kicked or slipped and
something is out of alignment?
9 Answers
I should also mention that the engine is in good operating temperature and has an adequate amount of antifreeze.
I did more hunting on the outerweb and found this from Roger about a week ago: "I have been trying to troubleshoot the "lack of heat" for a couple of months. The symptoms were lack of hot air particularly on the drivers side. Checked the anti freeze level, the actuators for the blend door etc , and flushed the heater core a couple of times. Heater core flushed easily with no sign of it being dirty. Dealer diagnosed it in no time. They said heater core and $1400 dollars later the heat works great. They explained that the heater core can and will plug in stages. So even thought you flush it, the tubes at the bottom can remain plugged. The lines are hot and circulating antifreeze through whatever tubes are not plugged. More and more get plugged and less surface of the heater core to make heat. I never realized this could happen to the heater core, always thought they would fail with a leak or plug up completely. Hope this helps. Roger" Thanks Roger! http://www.cargurus.com/Cars/Discussion-t25044_ds495279 I'm going to try flushing it with the hose again and flipping the hoses so they go in the opposite direction. Hopefully that will work for a little while. Then I'll buy a book and try to do it myself; thanks again! Bill
WOW, I don't think they made a Chilton of Haynes manual for this thing... GGGRRRR
OK, I pulsed the water hose on high for about 15-20 minutes through both sides of the heater core. Never saw any dirty junk for heard anything pop lose. Then I hooked the hoses up to it in reverse. Everything is working great now, awesome amounts of heat! I'll never understand why they designed the air flow passages to make so much awful noise when it's on high; you'd think they'd do better. I guess when you have a sexy girlfriend that likes mopars you have to learn these things. I'll get her driving a Ford one of these days! ;) The heater core will probably still need replaced sooner than later so I'll buy a Chilton for a jeep liberty of the same year as this dodge nitro. I'm pretty sure it's just a liberty with a dodge dress up kit. Thanks for all the help outerweb, I hope this is a blessing to someone else! Semper Fi, Bill
I've been having this EXACT same problem out of my 2008 Nitro. Thanks so much for voicing your experiences with this! Has helped point me in the right direction. I'll be going through flushing and reversing the hoses on my heater core this weekend. Will update on my experiences with this.
Get your heater core flushed !!
Dodgeman76 answered 7 years ago
Does anyone know where to get the white gears behind the actuator plate that open the blend doors for a dodge nitro? Dealer wants you to buy the whole heater box, they come attached to that.
My 2008 dodge nitro was doing the same thing, ac, blend door was working great but no heat ,the car wasn't overheating either but we flushed out the heater core it was fine so we just change the thermostat and boom that fixed it ,thought I would give some info I know there's alot of people having this problem, good luck everyone Hope's this helps
