2006 Toyota Land Cruiser - Cold Cold Car…

[St.Jude]

Bit of fun.

Santa swapped Rudolph for a Land Cruiser, obviously.

[St.Jude]

-4c here this morning. As I have done forever, I will let the car idle and turn on the aux heater (which is an electric pump/heating element) and warms the car up quickly. Dropped my lad off at his granny’s this morning, got stuck in school traffic. The thermostat needle registered just a bit under halfway meaning I could turned off the aux heater and be warm from the engines own heat.

Except in traffic I noticed it started blowing cold. No more heat. I wont lie, it did annoy me. But i carried on driving to work, the thermostat needle went half way, but then dipped as i drove.

After a few minutes the heating returned.

Had a quick Google and there are 3 possibilities:

- air lock in the cooling system
- stuck thermostat
- blocked heater matrix

Tomorrow lunchtime im working from home so i will burp the car and see if that sorts it. i have read on another forum someone fitted a 12v pump to the heater circuit so it forces the heater to work which solved this issue for them.

But I am fairly sure its an air lock or the matrix is blocked.

[lesapandre]

Some of these have a rear heating outlet - people cut them out of the loop so the water is not circulating all that way and remains warmer.

Sounds like a thermostat element somewhere tho. 

I don't know these modern ones but an auxiliary pump sounds an excellent idea. I must try that. 🤗👍