Please help me! Not much heat in car...and it's getting cold out!

Wow, that really sucks. Having no car in the winter is worse than no heat - and the timing is bad too, with the holidays and expense.

 

Look under your oil cap too. Sounds like you have combustion going into coolant. Make sure you don't have coolant going into oil too! Your oil will look like chocolate milk if that's happening. If so, you risk really damaging the motor by continuing to drive it.

Best of luck!!!

 

If you don't have a good oil pressure gauge on the car, you should get one even if only temporarily. Leaky head gaskets, if that's the trouble, can lead to coolant in the oil. With the clearances in these newer engines, it'll take out your bearings in a minute.

Just went through this on a Taurus (common problem) where Grandma was having heat problems, then smelly. She took it in, had $1400 bill to resurface the heads, new head gaskets, etc. then the oil light came on on the way home. Took it back, shop said it's a lemon & get rid of it. Bought her a new car, she gave the car to me, then had to replace the entire engine (including the $1400 wasted on the original).

Just hate to see someone get ripped like that only to find out the hard way that there's more damage. A quick check of your oil pressure might save some big $$$.

 

Sorry I haven't been following this entire thread, but it sounds to me like it could simply be a bad thermostat. Yes, I know you replaced it, but I've seen bad thermostats right out of the box.

It almost sounds like your thermostat is popping all the way open, then all the way closed, then open, etc. It's supposed to only open as far as necessary to maintain the coolant within a very narrow range of temperatures. Try a new one, maybe a different brand. I usually test them in a pan of water on the stove first before installing.

 

Possible. Also try drilling a couple of small holes in the T'stat to make sure there's some circulation past it. Sometimes the replacement ones don't have that and you can get a stagnant condition and hot spots in the heads.

 

Any news on your car Mark? If you don't have any other problems other than not having heat, you could always go the cheap arse route and buy one of those ceramic heaters for $30 and use that until it gets warm out. :laugh:

 

He must have forgotten about this thread.