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2003 Dodge Caravan - No Heat at Idle

15K views 12 replies 5 participants last post by  kklblue 
#1 ·
I have a 2003 Dodge Grand Caravan 3.3. I do not get heat when I am warming up the car. It appears that I only get heat when the temperature gage is half way between C and H. When I drive its heats fine, but as soon as I park or idle it blows cold again.

A clue might be the air circulation button on the dash is suppose to light up when pressed in, mine blinks for a couple of seconds and turns off, it never goes on.

I have been told its 10 different things, as a divorced mom can someone help me narrow it down.

Thanks so much.
 
#2 · (Edited)
This is a guess / maybe something to look at...

The blend door in the heater box (behind the glove box) is vacuum operated.
- a vacuum line maybe partially off the vacuum motor not being able to operate it properly
- a vacuum line may have a hole in it (same as above)
- diaphram in vacuum motor is torn
- slide control that you adjust for warm/cold temp. leaking vacuum
- problem at vacuum line at engine area

Vacuum changes with engine speed. There maybe a vacuum canister on that van somwhere (I'm not sure where) and it may have a hole in it as well. You would lose the built up supply of vacuum (in the canister) when you're at a stop (idle) and the blend door moves letting more cold air in. When you take off from the stop, vacuum is built up again and the blend door moves and cuts off the cold air coming into the heater box resulting in more heat being blown through the vents.

Wrench
 
#10 ·
I just got my car back from the dealership and I am not sure I believe what they are saying, but it appears to be fixed.

Apparently my radiator has been leaking. I didn't notice because it ran down some shroud. That diagnosis doesn't make sense to me. They replaced the radiator and did some pressure testing and I do have heat now. But wouldn't I notice water or antifreeze on the ground.

Other finds was - replace power steering pump-rack n pinion. Not sure how to spell that.

Replace valve cover gaskets as they were leaking.

My check engine light was on because I had a small crack in a 4 inch pollution control hose. They replaced that.

They also realigned the car because of the rack n pinion (sp).

I did notice that my air circulation button on my dash still blinks and doesn't stay on . I am going to call them back on that.

I hope this helps. The tech said that knowing I only have 400 miles on my extended warranty they tried to get everything they could covered under this service call so I do believe they did.

Thanks

Kris
 
#13 ·
I just was playing with the air circulation button and figured out that if you have the right knob where the heat is directed turned all the way to the left so it comes out the vents in the dash then the air circulation light stays on.

If you turn that knob all the way back over to the right to the defrost position the light blinks and goes off.

So mine is working fine.
 
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