Our 97 Explorer just doesn't seem to throw enough heat the past few weeks and I'd like to get it working as we have 2 small children and it's been dang cold here in the Northeast lately. Changed plug wires a few weeks ago but that shouldn't have anything to do with it unless I accidentally unhooked something while putting them in but i can't see that anything is unhooked. The temp gauge doesn't seem to quite hit the halfway mark but I'm not sure where it stood in the past as it's my wife's car. Only blows luke warm air and we run the rear air and front on High to no avail. Should I just change the stat and if so, where is it?

Thanks for any help.

Scott

 

With the temp gauge in the middle a new T-stat wont help. Take a look at the top of the page for the "simple blend door fix sticky" The dealer would want 8 or 9 hundred to fix, but you can do it yourself for free.

 

if the temp guage is in the normal area around half or a quarter the t-stat should be fine, what you should do is first check the heater hoses, they are located under the hood, if you look aganst the fire wall on the right side, there will be 2 about half or quater inch hoses going into the vehical, they will be right next tou each other and be the same size, what you want to do is when your vehcial warms up and you have the heat on feel those hoses they should both be hot, if only one is hot your heater core is clogged if neither your t-stat is bad, if they are both hot and your still getting only warm air i would check the blender door there is a fix in this forum you just have to search for it seems to be a prettey common problem. But seeing your vehical is a 97 you might want to replace the t-stat any ways they are about 5 or 6 bucks with the O-ring make sure you get the O-ring, the t-stat is located on the top of the engine, just follow the upper radiatior hose to were it goes into the engine there should be 3 bolts holding a metal hosing to the engine remove that and your t-stat is behinde that just remeber how the old t-stat is in the engine, i believe the spring side or the longer side goes into the engine i could be wrong i always get confused just make sure you check, i would also flush your cooling system exspecaially if it has never been done, and if your doing the t-stat minds well you have to drain coolent anyway just drain the whole radiater instead of a little and flush it out then replace the t-stat and refill your radiator making sure to get all air bubble out by keeping the cap off the the radiator with the engine running and heat on high until it does not bubble any more, also have to let it cool and refill it again.

 

if the temp in the middle dont bother replacing sometimes the t-stats are bad out of the box and you have to return and do several times i would just flush the radiator

 

OOPS, are you saying theres no heat out of the back either? I have no idea how these dual heaters are plumbed. I'd remove the rad cap (engine cold) & watch for bubbles in coolant & idle the air out of it for 15 minutes. If youre lucky theres just some air trapped in the system.

 

Thanks guys,
I checked the two lines tonight when she came home from work and they are both hot but not the same temperature. The one on the inside was a little bit hotter than the one on the outside. Is that normal as the cooler one would probably be the outlet after the water already passed through the heater core? I'm guessing it's 15 to 25 degrees difference(definately noticeable).

 

In that case it does sound like you've got the broken blend door problem. See the "sticky" for how to fix it.

 

What exactly does the blend door fix solve? Doesn't it just control where the air is going to(defrost, panel, floor,etc..) or does it determine temperature of the air as well? We don't have a problem with directing the air or the amount of air, it is the temperature of the air. Is that part of the "blend door fix" problems?

 

the blender door is for the temparure, your vent controls are differant, what it does is it mixes the air to either make it hot or cold or warm, right now its probally stuck to around warm or just wont open all the way to the hot setting, what you should do is after the vehical is warm turn the temp switch to cold see if it comes out cold, if it does or does not its your blender door, b/c if both hoses are hot then your heater core is not clogged just the blender door is letting too much cold air in

 

Thanks,
Sounds like I need to try the easy fix. Wish me luck. I'm going to print it out and take it out to the garage with me.