Heater core fails after 30-45 minutes?

[-Nighthawk-]

Hey,
just wondering if I have a faulty heater core or this is normal.

When driving in the morning to work the main heat only lasts about 30 minutes to 45 minutes at roughly 27 degrees.

Does it usually fail this early or do I need to replace something? If I do need to replace something is it expensive?
cheers

[vipfto]

you sure its nt just at temp set? it wont blow hot if its at set temp even if AC is off.

If heater core is stuffed you will find water/coolant on passenger footwell

[I8A4RE]

Yeah its climate control. SO if you set it too 24 degrees it will heat the car up as fast it can to that temp and then it will just maintain that temp. Want hotter put it it up higher

[-Nighthawk-]

I can feel the heat start to fade away after this time, there is hot air just not as much of it. Ie: at 28 degrees it feels like 20 degrees

I fix this by putting it all the way up, but after a while even at 32 it starts to die down a bit

[I8A4RE]

Weird..... Is the fan power getting weaker or just the temp getting lower?

[-Nighthawk-]

Just the temp getting lower

[vipfto]

read my above post mate
EVEN if climate is not on it will still cool down once up to temp

[I8A4RE]

really??? I thought that the cabin temp was only control via how hard the fan was working

[-Nighthawk-]

So why does it cool down when it reaches that temp? Doesn't make sense :\

[Kustom]

Just don't use auto, use manual lol.

[vipfto]

No it does it even if using it manually I thought there was something wrong with mine as it was same until I got to the bottom of it

BTW HTFU no need for heaters in Australia you soft bastards

[Kustom]

Mine doesn't cool down?
Gets hot & stays hot.

[bass_twitch]

Sorry to hijack, but just a kinda related question, (before my heater core died in the ass) I found that after about 2hr or more of driving my aircon fan power would decrease to a futile nothingness even if it was on full blast... ideas? (this was AC more than heating as it was happening on Hot days, long periods of driving...)

[I8A4RE]

Mine doesn't cool down?
Gets hot & stays hot.

same

[Bennoz]

lol, mines f**king hot, even when its not on

[Apothus]

When the japense engineers in their cubicles deisgn cars and many controll systems they use a system called PID (normally if they are being fancy). What this means is that as the car races the air from the blower through the blender unit it pushes all of the air through the heater core. As the cabin temperature starts to climb and approaches the preset temperature it will start to tail off as the blender starts to direct some of the airflow over the refrigeration element (if it is on or not). This will naturally make it feel as though the heat is tapering off....because it is. You will even find that the cabin temperature may over shoot the set value (depending on how the PID is tuned) at which point it will start to dump a majority mix of colder air.

This is just the normal way that climate controll works, not all systems use PID, some use histeresis instead but they are typically less refined and being phased out as PID becomes easier.

The short Answer: Your stuck with it how it is but unless your car feels like a sauna complete with steam spewing from the vents and water in the passenger footwell your heater core is fine (trust me this isnt a pleasant experience)

[bass_twitch]

but unless your car feels like a sauna complete with steam spewing from the vents and water in the passenger footwell your heater core is fine (trust me this isnt a pleasant experience)

Been there.. done that... haha
Poor car overheated because all my coolant and water was running into my passenger footwell...

[Apothus]

but unless your car feels like a sauna complete with steam spewing from the vents and water in the passenger footwell your heater core is fine (trust me this isnt a pleasant experience)

Been there.. done that... haha
Poor car overheated because all my coolant and water was running into my passenger footwell...

Yeah it really is a horrible experience, i remember mine all to vividly. I was relatively lucky as mine was a small leak but i had to drive wiping coolant fog off the windscreen so i could see and thats even before the fun task of replacing the heater core, i never want to do that again.

[bass_twitch]

but unless your car feels like a sauna complete with steam spewing from the vents and water in the passenger footwell your heater core is fine (trust me this isnt a pleasant experience)

Been there.. done that... haha
Poor car overheated because all my coolant and water was running into my passenger footwell...

Yeah it really is a horrible experience, i remember mine all to vividly. I was relatively lucky as mine was a small leak but i had to drive wiping coolant fog off the windscreen so i could see and thats even before the fun task of replacing the heater core, i never want to do that again.

So where abouts are you? can you give an tips about replacing the core/should i get someone else to do it?
I also get that awesome coolant fog, how did you stop that and how did you clean the coolant up?