Low heat from heater

[sumgruuvz]

Hey everyone,
So as the title says, I'm not getting hardly any heat from the heater when it's on full tilt. The a/c is working fine. The truck doesn't overheat so I've possibly ruled out the stat. I'm also not smelling antifreeze or have a wet passenger side floor board so I've ruled out the heater core also. The temp never gets above normal.
I've read some things on google that it could possibly be a door actuator. I know these trucks have 5 of them. Has anyone else had this problem? And if so, what was the remedy?

 

[Burla]

I had a door problem on my 2010 but it was ac, dunno if it is the same door. I had it under warranty but asked how much it would have been if no warranty, I forgot the response but remember it was near or lower then the 300 dollar range to fix. Do he have to take out glove box to access heater core, to be honest I haven't looked. If so I would and see if it is getting hot.

 

[Pull Ya]

Man, I gotta ask, where you at that you are using your heater already---here in Austin it's still 95 degrees???????
Jay

 

[JPT]

Man, I gotta ask, where you at that you are using your heater already---here in Austin it's still 95 degrees???????
Jay

I'm in NY, I already use heat in the mornings.

We get big temp swings now, it is 80 degrees now, but was 60 degrees this morning when I left for work. It has already dipped below 60 a few nights.

 

[Pull Ya]

Don't mean to hijack the thread I was just curious.
Jay

 

[Jeepwalker]

Does your truck have dual climate control?

It could well be a blend door actuator. I've had plenty of problems with them in my Jeeps. Could also be a broken door too. Unfortunately (well, fortunately for me) I haven't had to mess with blend doors on my Ram, but if someone has a manual they can probably tell you where the actuators are. Usually you can get at a couple of them under the dash by removing a few relatively easy-to-remove panels. Sometimes the actuator can still appear to be moving but on some the center nylon gear cracks and even though the gear moves, it 'opens' up just enough to allow the blend door shaft to 'slip' and doesn't fully close the blend door.

 

[sumgruuvz]

Not really necessary for heat in the morning, but last week its been in the mid to upper 90's during the day, but got down to 50 in the morning. So I needed some heat to warm it up . Anyway, last night, I parked it at an incline and this morning, started it up, took off the cap, let the stat open up and circulate, poured maybe 6-8 oz of antifreeze in it, and now have heat. So I'm guessing there was air in the system and got it burped out. Anyway, thanks for everyone's help. I'm good for now.

 

[Jeepwalker]

Good. Hope that's the end of it. But you have to ask yourself how come it's low. It's a closed system. Keep an eye on the level every couple weeks or so and see what happens. If you see it continue to lower then you know you have something to investigate. For example, and this isn't to scare you, but a failing headgasket can leak a just a small amount (into the cylinders) , and this could go on for years before it finally gives. Or, you might have a really small leak around one of the radiator hoses that doesn't leak when it's warm out, but when things get cold and parts shrink, CAN let a little coolant drizzle by. So, just keep an eye on things.

 

[Jeepwalker]

For the heck of it, remove the engine's oil fill cap, flip over an look underneath to see if there's a white milky substance under there.

 

[dstryr]

Not really necessary for heat in the morning, but last week its been in the mid to upper 90's during the day, but got down to 50 in the morning. So I needed some heat to warm it up . Anyway, last night, I parked it at an incline and this morning, started it up, took off the cap, let the stat open up and circulate, poured maybe 6-8 oz of antifreeze in it, and now have heat. So I'm guessing there was air in the system and got it burped out. Anyway, thanks for everyone's help. I'm good for now.

Before you added anti freeze did you notice if you got heat when the RPMs were up? That's almost always a sign of low coolant. I'm surprised 6-8 ounces made a difference; I'd think with the capacity of the system a gallon would make a difference but not a few ounces.

Did you take the cap off the radiator? There may be a plastic dipstck resting inside the neck but I'm not sure what year that was started.

Keep your eye on it!

 

[jawzs2]

If you do not have the dual climate control, you can try this, it fixed mine

HVAC Manual Recalibration below

With the vehicle running set the HVAC blower to low

-Press and hold the recirculation button on the HVAC Control Head for 10 seconds and release.

-Now press and hold the recirculation button on the HVAC Control Head again until the recirculation LED begins to flash, then release.

-The system will perform a brief recalibration and reset faults

 

[sumgruuvz]

Well, just thought I'd post an update as to what I've done so far to the truck. As of now, I've replaced the thermostat again, new fan clutch, new water pump, new heater core, and this weekend will be a new radiator, hoses, and rad cap. I guess when I opened up the cooling system that hasn't been messed with ever, I opened up pandora's box. Everything needed replaced. The truck now overheats when running 70 mph on the highway. I'm 99% sure it's not the head gasket because I'm not losing coolant, no white smoke, and oil is not milky. Apparently opening everything made all the flaws rear their ugly heads. So far I'll be in about $1600 in repairs :/ But at least everything will be new.