I have a 95 SL and on the few recent cold days I have noticed that the heat is not hot at idle. The air blows strong, and the heat feels fine as long as the car is actually being driven. Also seems to be running slightly warmer than usual, if this matters. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Questions:


(1) How many miles on the car/engine ?


(2) When was the last time you did a coolant flush ?


(3) Is there any indication of coolant seepage from the waterpump ?


(4) Does the fan run continuously, even when engine is cold ?


(5) Are there any codes set on the engine ?Edited by: OceanArcher

The car has 185,000 miles on it. I haven''t noticed any coolant leaking under the car. The last flush was about 2 years ago (maybe 20-25K miles). The fan does not run constantly. I have no check engine light, but haven''t checked for codes.


Could this be attributed to low coolant? I checked today once the engine cooled and have none in the overflow. I''ll addsome over the weekend and see if it improves.


Thanks!

Quite possibly, the thermostat is stuck full open, preventing the engine from reaching the proper operating temperature.


From a totally cold engine, remove the radiator cap. Start the engine, and see if the coolant immediately starts to circulate (proper operating thermostat will minimize flow until engine temperature warms up). Vigorous flow indicates stuck/defective thermostat.


Oh, if you need to change the thermostat, wait until the engine cools back down - less painful that way.