Hi all,

The change of seasons made it necessary to finally turn the heat on. But for some reason, the heater is blowing out cold air most of the time. At first it seemed like it was just taking a long time to warm up. But now, some days it doesn't EVER get warm during my 45 minute commute. Other days, it will take 10-15 minutes to get warm, but never really seems to get hot.
The fan works fine, so it's not the same issue that some others seem to have with that. And it doesn't seem to matter what the temperature is set to.

Any thoughts, ideas, or suggestions? I have to imagine somebody else has dealt with this.

It's a 2000 S40 with 186,000.

 

Does the motor get hot?

 

The temp gauge sits right in the middle, so I'm assuming the engine is hot.

 

are you sure your coolant is topped off? if you dont have enought coolant it wont go through the heater core so your blower fan will just blow cold air.

 

Hmmm....didn't think to check the coolant, but will give it a look in daylight tomorrow.

I actually had it in for an oil change today. They usually check fluid levels but didn't mention anything when I picked it up. Wouldn't surprise me of they didn't even look at it though.

 

Go figure. Sure enough, it was low on coolant. The expansion tank was 100% empty, and appears to be leaking. This is something I probably should have checked, but I guess I've gotten pretty spoiled from my other cars that actually tell me when they need something.

 

if the expansion tank was empty, there should of been a red light on the dash, you might want to put the key on second position and see if you are missing lights. Every car, and volvo i had, if your coolant tank is below the min, the light comes on, might not be on all the time, but on sharp turns, it blinks, but i could be wrong

 

No lights or warnings on the dash at all. The light works, and comes on when I turn the key. All of the lights work, but no indication that there was an issue with the coolant level.

Not that I'm surprised. Since I've had the car I've found a few interesting things that the previous owner(s) have done.

 

The coolant level whilst low may have been refilling the reservoir just enough to cover the coolant level sensor as soon as the motor was started and coolant circulates, therefore not set the warning light off?

Check the reservoir for splitting and / or the cap to ensure the seal is in good condition.

Watch this and get it sorted asap as you may blow a head gasket if you allow the coolant to get too low. Not worth the risk or expense.

 

could of been that. Definitely, if the tank was empty, you are loosing coolant, which needs to be resolved, like the person in the previous post said.

 

Thanks for the tips guys. I'll take a closer look at it this weekend to see what I can find. Tomorrow's supposed to be relatively warm, so I'll be riding the bike to work.