If your car heater fails this winter, you’ll have to bundle yourself in extra clothing and blankets to keep relatively warm. Then you’ll have to pray that your teeth chattering rapidly doesn’t knock out any dental fillings.
However, you can avoid car-heater problems to begin with by recognizing a few indicators that signify pending car-heater trouble:
• Is there a chirping or screeching sound when you turn on your car heater? This noise could imply a worn fan-motor bearing. If the fan motor bearing is going out, then it’s only a matter of time before the motor fails altogether.
• Are you having difficulty moving the heater-control lever in your vehicle? This difficulty may be an indicator of a sticky or inoperative heater-control valve.
• What about moisture, does it build up in your car? If you answered yes, then your car’s heater core—a miniature radiator—might be leaking.
• Are you already experiencing problems with your heating system? It just isn’t working quite right? If your duct hoses leak, your heater will not you’re your or defrost your windows properly. Heater and defroster duct hoses carry fresh air into the system and warmed air to locations beyond the heater core.
• When you turn on your heater do you only feel cold air? This is an indicator of a leaking heater hose (which carries your system’s antifreeze) and if you don’t fix it, you could find yourself stranded in the snow!
