Community Forums

cpp8284 · 02-22-2019, 01:33 PM

My coach dash heat doesn't provide warm air. I checked the water control valve on the dash unit and it works and the vacuum pump works.

Does anyone have suggestions of what to check next?

Does anyone know if there is a valve on the heater hose from the engine to the dash unit?

tomsm · 02-22-2019, 03:28 PM

My Journey has 2 valves in the engine area. One each for input and output. Very easy to spot if you slide under the back forward of the radiator. Brightly colored valves - yellow, I think, but may be red. Been a while since I've been under there.

That's probably your problem - those cores are prone to leaking and rather difficult to access for repairs, so many owners just shut off the valves if the core leaks. Luckily, mine are still OK.

tomsm · 02-22-2019, 03:51 PM

If your valves are closed and you get a leak up front when you open them, take a look at this discussion from years ago...

http://www.irv2.com/forums/f101/jour...ixed-4906.html

AFChap · 02-23-2019, 08:21 AM

I am not aware of any inline valves on my 2002 Ultimate Advantage ... if you are not the original owner someone could have added one.

neub · 02-23-2019, 11:44 AM

Our 2005 journey also has the two shutoff valves which where factory installed

cpp8284 · 02-24-2019, 01:49 PM

Thanks for your suggestions and input.

Worked on it a few hours today. Here's what we found:
- The vacuum pump and control valve are working properly
- No vacuum leaks
- No gate valves on the heater hoses from the engine to the front heater unit
- Hot water gets to the control valve at the front heater unit when the engine is at higher rpm
- Still not much warm air from the heat vents in the dash

We disconnected the hose from the control valve to the heater coil and it appears that there is air in the heater coil. We are thinking about finding a way to release the air where the return hose exits the heater coil. That's the highest point in the system.

Anyone have any suggestions.

Ray,IN · 02-24-2019, 09:13 PM

When you loosened the heater hoses, it should have allowed coolant to escape if the hoses are open to flow - IF you had the engine running and there are no manual shut-off valves in the circuit. You may repeat that process with engine running to double-check.

There is an Evans Tempcon valve that controls heat in addition to the in-line vacuum operated open/close heater hose valve.

cpp8284 · 02-25-2019, 05:42 AM

We did get coolant released when we disconnected the hose from the heater coil. It spewed out and appeared to have air trapped.

Do you know of a good way to release the air? The heater coil is the highest point in the cooling system and the air seems to be trapped there.

twinboat · 02-25-2019, 06:22 AM

What temperature is the coolant at ?

At 160° or less, your not going to get much heat from your heater.

Ray,IN · 02-25-2019, 03:43 PM

If you loosened the return hose side it should have purged most of the air in the coil, however that left the return hose to be purged, which may take as much as a gallon of coolant to replace trapped air. I think(it's been a long time) there is a vent bolt on top of the thermostat housing to release trapped air too.

cpp8284 · 02-26-2019, 10:12 AM

We inserted a tee in the heater hose leaving the heater coil and added a piece of heater hose and a valve pointing up and above the coil. We ran the engine at higher rpm, purged the air/coolant mixture for a while and eventually got hot coolant going to the coil and warm air our of the heater vents. We purged the coolant into a gallon jug and poured it back into the coolant reservoir to maintain the coolant level and not waste the liquid.

Everything seems to be working properly now.

Thanks for all of your suggestions.