QuestionThanks a million for writing back so amazingly fast, Roland! I sent my question (and received your response 6 times, I guess,) when the system was down from my daughter's house. I almost deleted your reply as I didn't see the answer section at the bottom. I will ask my mechanic tomorow what type of controls I have. And will read him your reply.
I so appreciate your input!
Joyce Stone - close in age maybe to you - born in "42."
Question -
Hi Roland,
MY car heater stopped working recently. Local mechanic replaced the thermoset and the heater gives off a modest amount of heat, maybe better than before - lukewarm. Mechanic doesn't have the diagram for the heater box (?) -he says the heater core is working - the blower is working fine - the buttons work well. /Some valve is closed or not functioning properly so the heat is not passing into the car compartment. He said if he had a diagram of this box that he could probably fix it. The Chrysler dealer in NY was going to charge $700 to repair it - I would wear snow pants rather than pay that amount.
Would you be able to e-mail me the diagram showing the valves, etc.
Thank you very much!
Joyce Stone
Montrose, PA
Answer -
Hi Joyce,
I do have the shop manual for the '94 LHS and it has a good section on the heater/AC distribution box. There are also built-in self check tests to determine what is wrong with it. Unfortunately I don't have a document scanner but I am happy to xerox copy and mail you the pages. So if you will send me a postal mailing address I'll get those off to you. In your reply please tell me if you have the conventional control unit (several knobs) or the automatic temperature control unit with a digital temperature readout.
I suspect that the problem is with the temperature control door which is motor driven. Fortunately it it on the bottom of the unit so it is accessible. But your mechanic should do the self-check. He should also verify that the inlet and outlet hoses are about equally hot as a verification that the heater core is allowing the water to flow through freely.
I am sorry to have been slow in responding but the server for Allexperts had a breakdown for the past 2 days and you probably noticed it was difficult to send in your question.
Roland
AnswerHi Joyce.
Thanks for the kind feedback and note. There is a very good Chrysler info site that has a section on how to get the trouble codes to self-readout on the A.T.C. type of unit that you have.
www.allpar.com/fix/codes-climate.html
Write me back when you get the code(s) (To check if there is more than one code, after the first code is displayed push the panel only button (I believe that it is the left- most button of four in the lower row of buttons). Then I will know what pages to copy and send. I doubt that it will be enough pages to warrant any reimbursement. But do give me a postal mailing address.
Roland
Hi Joyce,
You are welcome. The types of control unit are basically:
1. Manual unit with 3 rotary knobs and 2 pushbuttons
2. Automatic temperature control unit with 2 knobs and 10 push buttons and a lighted digital readout for the temperature desired.
So I'll await the mechanic's interest in getting the details of the specific unit's self-tests and repair procedures.
Actually I should have said "child" with regard to the family '41 Dodge, because I was 4 at that time.
Roland
P.S. Yes that server mess was a nightmare. Actually what happened was that you and others sent me multiple duplicate questions because they thought the question hadn't been accepted by the server. Then I had to reply to each one (except one which I replied to) with a "duplicate question" rejection note. So in the end I had to send 3 dozen of those out in order to clear my question box. It took more than an hour just to do that. The site can't edit duplicate questions out of the "experts" in box, evidentally. But today everything is normal again, but how long it will last I do not know.
