Ok, so as we all know, it is January, prime of the winter around these parts (actually feb-march is but it's started early here), and the damn heater isn't blowing any real hot air. I mean its warm and all and it will get you warm and cozy when your windows are up, but as soon as you open the door and shut it, it gets cold inside and takes almost a minute to heat the cabin back up. This sucks! What in the world could it be? The blower motor is blowing very efficient, the defroster works great, a/c works great, but the heater isnt pushing any hot air. Oh yeah, also, I know the faster you blow the hot air, the less hot it is.... but this is ridiculous. Someone please help my freezing *ss!!!

~Jon

 

so its blowing fine, just not hot enough?

if so, I say thermostat

 

It is very common for the heater core to get clogged. Remove the heater hoses at the water pump and flush the core both ways with a garden hose. Keep any fluid off the opti.

 

Easiest and first thing to do is to take off the radiator cap (engine cold) and make sure you have enough coolent in there as low coolent will cause poor heat. Is the engine heating up to its normal temp? If not the thermostats probably stuck open. If the engine is heating up to normal temps, the heater core is probably clogged. I'd flush it as described before and see what happens (have fun getting the hoses off) My 97 had the same problem, I just ignored it untill it dumped about a gallon of coolent on the passenger side floor, A new heater core and it's good as new.

By the way a heater core on a 4th gen is no where near as challenging as a 2nd or 3rd gen

 

i had the exact same problem. Everything worked fine but the air was hardly luke warm. I had a 160 thermostat in and thought that was the problem. took it out, put the stock one back in and still blew cold air. couple weeks later i flushed the heater core with a garden hose and now it works great, toasty warm. i havnt tried putting the 160 stat back in but i dont think it was the cause of the problem, so i would flush the heater core first.