This morning when driving home I noticed the heat wasn't very hot in the Jetta (2014 1.8T). I felt the vents and the driver side vents were warmer than the passenger side. The passenger side was almost ice cold by comparison. I fiddled with the settings but nothing remedied the lack of heat. This car has manual adjustments for the climate control, so no climatronic. I am afraid it is a plugged heater core, though I don't know why it would be at such low mileage (54K). I have scheduled an appointment with the dealer and am afraid the replacement cost will be very high. Any ideas? Coolant level is where it needs to be and I don't see or smell any leaks.
Failing heater core?
- Thread starter gregk24
- Start date
- Status
Have you previously changed the coolant based on VW's service requirement? At any point has coolant been added to the system?
I failed to change the coolant at the 5/50k interval in my Caliber due to how slowly it accumulated mileage and ended up with very little heat output. The Dodge dealer did a poor job flushing it and quoted me an outrageous price to replace the core. I did several flush/fill with water/drive cycles one afternoon and replaced with coolant. The heat output is very good now.
I failed to change the coolant at the 5/50k interval in my Caliber due to how slowly it accumulated mileage and ended up with very little heat output. The Dodge dealer did a poor job flushing it and quoted me an outrageous price to replace the core. I did several flush/fill with water/drive cycles one afternoon and replaced with coolant. The heat output is very good now.
Originally Posted by Fifth87
Have you previously changed the coolant based on VW's service requirement? At any point has coolant been added to the system?
I failed to change the coolant at the 5/50k interval in my Caliber due to how slowly it accumulated mileage and ended up with very little heat output. The Dodge dealer did a poor job flushing it and quoted me an outrageous price to replace the core. I did several flush/fill with water/drive cycles one afternoon and replaced with coolant. The heat output is very good now.
Coolant change is not required at our age / mileage. Coolant has been added, and it was the OEM recommended spec.
Have you previously changed the coolant based on VW's service requirement? At any point has coolant been added to the system?
I failed to change the coolant at the 5/50k interval in my Caliber due to how slowly it accumulated mileage and ended up with very little heat output. The Dodge dealer did a poor job flushing it and quoted me an outrageous price to replace the core. I did several flush/fill with water/drive cycles one afternoon and replaced with coolant. The heat output is very good now.
Coolant change is not required at our age / mileage. Coolant has been added, and it was the OEM recommended spec.
Didnt those cars have water pump impeller problems?
Originally Posted by gregk24
Originally Posted by Chris142
Didnt those cars have water pump impeller problems?
I'm not sure. I thought the 2.0T engines had that defect. Ours did have the water pump replaced due to an external leak.
Was that recently? Some cars have specific procedures to purge air from the coolant system. Air pocket could contribute to loss of heat.
Originally Posted by Chris142
Didnt those cars have water pump impeller problems?
I'm not sure. I thought the 2.0T engines had that defect. Ours did have the water pump replaced due to an external leak.
Was that recently? Some cars have specific procedures to purge air from the coolant system. Air pocket could contribute to loss of heat.
Originally Posted by MONKEYMAN
Originally Posted by gregk24
Originally Posted by Chris142
Didnt those cars have water pump impeller problems?
I'm not sure. I thought the 2.0T engines had that defect. Ours did have the water pump replaced due to an external leak.
Was that recently? Some cars have specific procedures to purge air from the coolant system. Air pocket could contribute to loss of heat.
Water pump replacement was over a year ago. The heat has been used plenty of times since then.
Originally Posted by gregk24
Originally Posted by Chris142
Didnt those cars have water pump impeller problems?
I'm not sure. I thought the 2.0T engines had that defect. Ours did have the water pump replaced due to an external leak.
Was that recently? Some cars have specific procedures to purge air from the coolant system. Air pocket could contribute to loss of heat.
Water pump replacement was over a year ago. The heat has been used plenty of times since then.
A failed blend door could also have the symptoms you described.
It definitely needs to be looked at.
It definitely needs to be looked at.
Why was coolant added? It should not consume coolant and have very minimal evaporative losses if you have a reserve tank, and none if you don't.
I suppose anything is "possible" but it is very unlikely to have a heater core clog at this young age and mileage with the factory fill, assuming the correct OEM coolant was used to top it off.
Stuck blend door, the servo motor fried or the door itself broke, or perhaps some gasket/etc came loose and blocked its movement, are the most likely.
Driver's and passenger's sides having significantly different temp doesn't make sense without dual zone control, unless it is designed for dual zone as an option so has two blend doors and only one of the two has malfunctioned.
If you are afraid of a high repair cost, why would you take it to a dealer? That pretty much guarantees the highest repair cost possible. Seek a forum where fellow Jetta owners can tell you how much needs done to get to the blend door if it's more than just pulling the glovebox out, or pull the glovebox out and see what there is to see.
If the blend door motor isn't activating, then use a multimeter to see if power is getting to it when you change the temperature setting, to determine if it's the motor or upstream at the switch or ?? If the motor is activating, examine the door mechanism itself.
I suppose anything is "possible" but it is very unlikely to have a heater core clog at this young age and mileage with the factory fill, assuming the correct OEM coolant was used to top it off.
Stuck blend door, the servo motor fried or the door itself broke, or perhaps some gasket/etc came loose and blocked its movement, are the most likely.
Driver's and passenger's sides having significantly different temp doesn't make sense without dual zone control, unless it is designed for dual zone as an option so has two blend doors and only one of the two has malfunctioned.
If you are afraid of a high repair cost, why would you take it to a dealer? That pretty much guarantees the highest repair cost possible. Seek a forum where fellow Jetta owners can tell you how much needs done to get to the blend door if it's more than just pulling the glovebox out, or pull the glovebox out and see what there is to see.
If the blend door motor isn't activating, then use a multimeter to see if power is getting to it when you change the temperature setting, to determine if it's the motor or upstream at the switch or ?? If the motor is activating, examine the door mechanism itself.
Originally Posted by gregk24
Originally Posted by KrisZ
A failed blend door could also have the symptoms you described.
It definitely needs to be looked at.
Even though this does not have dual zone?
Blend door regulates between floor, middle, and upper levels whether or not dual zone.
Originally Posted by KrisZ
A failed blend door could also have the symptoms you described.
It definitely needs to be looked at.
Even though this does not have dual zone?
Blend door regulates between floor, middle, and upper levels whether or not dual zone.
After I was certain the blend door was not the problem I'd check and rule out the thermostat. If that's good I'd flush the cooling system, and forward and reverse flush the heater core.
wemay
Site Donor 2023
Greg, if you are in south Florida, call Novitech. They're an indie VW/Audi Specialist shop, good honest guys.
OP, it's probably your blend doors have lost all their foam covering. Very common on older German cars. You have to gain access to the blend doors and clean the old stuff off and put new on. Search the VW forums, it's a common problem and lot's of good how-to's.
I just had this done on my Porsche.
I just had this done on my Porsche.
- Status
