New member/owner intro and first problem. No Heat!!

[kyngofpop]

Hi all, new member and consumate enthusiast here. I've got so many cars that I'm drowning in projects lol, but I love em all and they're my placeholders since I prefer not to have children. My DD's are my 04 Volvo S80 and my 2013 BMW 550i X-Drive.

I recently picked up one of my dream cars, a 1999 Y33 Q45t in that light green metallic color that's so lovely imo. The car has only 79k on it and was owned by a BoA exec (good or bad lol). The car is in decent shape and runs perfectly but has two issues that are driving me insane. I searched ad nauseum before I came here so as not to post whats already been posted but I'm at the end of my rope.

The car has no heat and I've done all of the usual things before I uttered the ugly words "heater-core". I flushed the system countless times, verified the radiator is flowing, verified that the climate-head is functional, and changed the T-Stat to no avail. The car is reaching operating temperature but the hoses leading to the heater core arent getting warm at all. Not the ones coming from the radiator, but the hoses at the heater core themselves. I disconnected the heater core hoses to try and flush it but I can't get anything into the core at all! Even put my thumb over the hoses to kinda see if even a small amount of air was going thru and both sides pushed back....kinda like it may be clogged.

The question is, is there a heater control valve that controls coolant flow into the heater core that opens that's broken or is my heater core indeed clogged and in need of replacement? Everything else electronically is verified working. The only time that I got some heat recently was after flushing 5x, I ran the motor around 3k-4k rpm and it got a little warm but as soon as I dropped the RPM's to idle the heat went back to cold . Keep in mind that everything else is flowing other than the heater core.

Also is there a guide to cleaning the sunroof drains? It appears that this sunroof has NEVER been open and water comes in thru the drains over the passengers door and a tad into the trunk.

Thanks in advance and hopefully I'm able to keep and make this car as good as new. Love the styling and performance and hope to be a contributing member here.

[my12by60]

I have no heat in my 2000 AE due to failed actuators inside the dash. But to your question on coolant flow, my understanding, which was confirmed by others in this forum, is that the coolant is continuous flow through the heater core any time the engine is running as opposed to the coolant flow being controlled by a valve of some sort. So that would indicate a clog as you were fearing. It still seems to me that the heater hose heading into the core should be hot as hot coolant from the engine block tries to make its way through the heater core loop. If a clog in the core is the problem, then the return hose from the core would fail to heat up. I assume you have checked for any blockage in the heater hose pathway that is reachable under the hood.

[kyngofpop]

I took the Underhood heater hoses off and they’re flowing right up until the heater core. It appears that my heater core is clogged since there’s no heater control valve as I’d hoped. I’m guessing this is gna be a huge 50hr job lol

[my12by60]

I live in Phoenix and can get by without heat. Besides, I don't have the mechanical skills to tear into the dash to replace the failed actuators. Let us know if you decide to take on the dash tear down job. I will be curious to hear how tough it is.

[kyngofpop]

I'll periodically update. I have tons of projects so I may have to put this one on the back burner for a tad.