I noticed last week when it snowed that my heater isn't blowing very hot. I was talking to a coworker about it and he mentioned to try flushing the core with CLR. Has anyone here heard of doing that, or anyone done it? Any thoughts on whether it would be worth trying? Or even any other ideas or tips?
Thanks

 

Try some searching. You can use Google and add "cherokeeforum". Some say it's to strong, for me it seemed to do nothing. I backflush the core with a hose, repeatedly both ways. I use hand-grip on the hose so as to not over pressurize and blow it. Others hook it up solid to way higher pressure than the < 20 Lbs it normally sees. Do it with both lines off, you don't want to back flush it into the system!

 

Thanks for the info. I used the search here but didn't see anything, I could have overlooked it somewhere. I think I might give it a shot this weekend.
So I'm assuming I just want to pour a little down one hose, let it sit for a minute, then flush both ways with water?

 

I would try it with just the water hose and see if it help before you use clr. Or you can try the flush that it recommended for the cooling system. The reason I say this is if you don't know the condition of the heater core the clr can eat right through it. Also when you do flush it make sure to flush it in both directions several times.

 

Thanks.

 

+1, try flushing with just water first. If it flushes clean and still doesn't blow hot after the engine is warmed up, maybe check the actuator under your glove box, make sure it's actuating. Also the door in the HVAC housing (that the actuator opens and closes) sometimes breaks.

 

The CLR web site says "do not use in a car radiator".....the heater core is a small radiator.

http://www.jelmar.com/faqclr.htm

 

He didn't tell you the right way to search. Use Google, but include "site:cherokeeforum.com" in the search terms, like so:

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...rokeeforum.com

I dunno if CLR is a good idea, but people have talked about it.

 

CLR says "don't use it in a rad".......wonder why?

 

Hi djb383, It's that time of year for the no heat questions, isn't it?

 

Yep.......as well as the CLR in the radiator myth being perpetuated.

 

ExtraS is right. It doned on me later the".com" matters. "cherokeeforum.com", included in "with all these words" in Google advanced search would be better. (I'm not familiar with using "site")

A bit off topic at this point but here is the search box I like> http://www.google.com/advanced_search?hl=en

 

If you just include "cherokeeforum.com," Google searches for "cherokeeforum.com" as a regular search term. So if someone on a Prius forum types something about cherokeeforum.com, that post would be included in the search results. Anybody who links to this forum from his/her blog would also get caught in that net.

If you use "site:cherokeeforum.com" instead, Google is forced to search ONLY this site. It doesn't treat it as a regular search term, but as a restriction on the search parameters. You can do that with any domain name. Adding "site:www.priuschat.com" would restrict the search to the douchey Prius forum, etc.

The search functions built into the major message board software packages generally suck. There have been times when I have known EXACTLY what I was looking for and couldn't find it using the board's search, but going out to Google and using the "site:" tag returned the page I was looking for at the top of the results.