Car heats up but cabin does not heat up despite

Hi Fred.

I'm not totally sure I understand your question, but I'll take a shot. Are you saying that the engine fan stays on all the time for your car, keeping the radiator cool, and so you're not able to get any heat in the cabin air? Or possibly that the cabin fan is on all the time and you can't get any heat because it's keeping the radiator cool.

unless there is something very odd about your car (or you're living at the south pole), your engine coolant will be plenty warm within a few minutes of starting. If you are doubtful, drive the car for 5 to 10 minutes, stop, turn off the motor, pop the hood, and carefully move your hand close to the radiator. The blower fan helps transfer heat, but that's to move the coolant temp down probably into the 150-200F range.

if you're not getting any cabin heat, I'd have stronger suspicion about the heater core for your air system. In the majority of vehicles, there is a loop of coolant that comes off the back of the engine block, through the fire wall, and up to a U-Bend of pipe. When the heater is off, the coolant is just re-directed back to the engine. As you turn the knob or lever for cabin heat, it'll turn a switching valve to shunt the hot coolant into a heat exchanger/mini-radiator that the cabin air blows past. This system being a mini-radiator is why highways with long uphill grades will advise motorists to turn on their heater full heat, highest fan, when climbing in the summer. it's an additional way to keep the engine from overheating, even if it sucks for people in the vehicle.

Depending on the car, it can be either easy or really involved diagnosing or repairing the heat exchanger. if you go this route, you'll want to make sure that the coolant is circulated through the core thoroughly and that the coolant-system is de-bubbled.

Good Luck!
D

Turning on the heat removes heat from the engine as it blows it on you. Make sure first that there are no air pockets in your cooling system as that can cause high temp reading and malfunctions in proper fan engagement. If that looks good test your fan, if it is working then test the fan relay, if it is working test the temperature sensor that gives the relay the go ahead to engage the fan.

My guess the heater flap controls are not moving the flaps.
Look up beside the heater unit while someone operates the controls.

try opening the windows and turning on the fan. no heat, no a/c, just the fan. should cool down and blow the hot air into the cabin(thats y you roll down the windows). It will coll it off.

Your car's heater is a life saver in cold weather. Before attempting to repair your car?s heater, you should understand how your car?s heater system works. First, on this page is an explanation of how your car?s heater system functions, further down the page are some pointers on heater system trouble-shooting. To warm the passenger cabin of your car, your car?s heating system makes use of excess heat from the engine?s internal combustion process. A car?s engine, in fact, when in operation produces so much excess heat that if the excess heat is not removed, it would destroy the engine. It is your car?s cooling system that removes that dangerous excess heat. Some of an engine?s excess heat is released through the exhaust. Most of an engine?s excess heat is absorbed by a circulating liquid coolant, which is a mix of water and antifreeze. The heated liquid coolant is carried from the engine through hoses to the radiator, which transfers the heat from the coolant to the outside air. That heat transfer lowers the temperature of the liquid coolant, which is then circulated back to the engine to absorb excess heat again. Whereas the radiator is located at your car?s front grill, the unit that transfers heat to the passenger cabin is located inside the dashboard. This unit is something of a mini-radiator and is referred to as the heater core. Heated liquid coolant circulates through tubes in the heater core and a heater fan blowing across those tubes, as well as through little fins encasing the tubes, directs warm air through heating vents into your car?s passenger cabin. Because your car?s heating system works off of its cooling system, heating system malfunctions are often caused by problems in the cooling system.

Your most probable cause for this is because your water valve needs replacement or repairing. Not all cars have a water valve that brings the heated coolant into the heater core unit.

Essentially, the heated coolant is brought from the engine block directly, into a mini radiator that has a fan to blow heated air into your vehicles cabin.

If that valve were clogged, or the switch itself to open up the water valve that blocks the coolant from going into the heater core unit, then you wont be able to get heat from the vents.

ALSO, another reason why your car might also be overheating as well, is you need to check your coolant levels as well to make sure it is fully filled up, if it is, then your thermostat might also need replacement.

good luck with your problem.

It sounds like you do need a thermostat with your heat shut off and the gauge will raise a little then the car doesn't have that heat drawn from it indicating that you most likely do need a thermostat. As far as the fans coming on immediatly that could be a different problem it is most likely the coolant temperature sensor that tells the fan's when to come on. If this sensor says the coolant is hot the fans will come on immediatly. These are seperate problems as the coolant temperature sensor does not have anything to do with the cabin heating system. You should first check the level of your coolant is full, This could also cause your cabin heating system to perform poorly, and may have adverse effects to the engine cooling system. (fans)

sounds as if you have an air lock on your heater try bleeding it or check your heater cable it may be jamed or needs ajustment

check your fuses sound like its your blower motor.good luck happy holiday

2005 Freestyle does not have a cabin air filter.