2007 9-5 2.3t - no heat at idle

[MikeB63]

Okay, so after a scare with a broken serpentine belt, I had noticed that I did not have heat one morning. I suspected an air bubble in the system after a gallon of coolant was added after overheating. The next day, I drove the car to work and suddenly I had heat again. That was back in October. No problems since, so I assumed things worked themselves out. Yesterday, I noticed that the vent in the console for the back seats was blowing cold air while heat was coming from the front. I manually recalibrated the ACC just to try something with no luck. Today, while driving the car, I feel cool air coming from the vents; front and back. I put the climate control in manual with no change. I got on the highway and noticed that at higher RPM's, I could feel heat coming up a bit. This would seem like an air bubble again, but I've done nothing to the cooling system. Temperature gauge is steady in the middle of the range. Any suggestions on "burping" the system? I remember someone saying to park the car on a downslope to move any air. Is this correct with this vehicle? Any suggestions at all?

[Digger]

If you don't own the tool, making the coolant fill the highest point of the cooling system by parking on a slope to burp the bubbles is the next best thing. Where your coolant fill is located determines if the car needs to be parked nose pointing up or down.

Blowing cold out the back vent with warm out the front sounds more like a bad air mix motor and no amount of burping or programming fixes a broken part. When the car is running and warm check your heater hoses and find out if you have coolant flowing through the heater core, one hose should be hot and the other hose should be almost as hot, a quick touch of the hand should tell you if you should have heat inside. If you have hot hoses on both sides of the heater core and no heat blowing inside start looking to your air mix motors.

[MikeB63]

Yeah I think it's a mix door. I had forgotten that I shut the vent in the console. When I opened it again, I had heat up front. Now to find the door.

[MikeB63]

Finally got around to checking the motors, on the passenger side anyway, and they seem to be okay, but I found that the linkage rod on the motor that controls the defrost/vent/floor door(s) is disconnected at the bottom in the console. Does anyone have any details on how to get to that end? I assume I have to disassemble the console to get there.

[Digger]

Finally got around to checking the motors, on the passenger side anyway, and they seem to be okay, but I found that the linkage rod on the motor that controls the defrost/vent/floor door(s) is disconnected at the bottom in the console. Does anyone have any details on how to get to that end? I assume I have to disassemble the console to get there.

Must be a lot warmer where you are than it is here. For this a picture is worth a thousand words and I don't have a picture to send you. Google images for the part will usually have an illustrated line art parts breakdown somewhere in the gallery and when you don't have the EPC it's the next best place to find what you need.

[MikeB63]

Ha, ha it's about 25-30 degrees here, but between snow and other things, just didn't have time. I worked the linkage arms and doors and they seem easy to move. I reassembled the motors and watched them. I can toggle between defrost, vent, and floor, but that arm isn't connected. That may wait until spring as I think it connects the back vents. I am not getting heat at all now, so I may tear it apart again tomorrow and see why the other motor may not be moving. Thank goodness I have heated seats.

[swisssaabist]

I think you have talking about the mixing flap arm on passenger side if you don't have air repartition on vents, it happened to me few months ago, the long metal lever hidden on the side of console is this one for distribution #9 on the drawing

[swisssaabist]

the #12 is often the culprit the lever must be snapped on the little hole

[MikeB63]

I think you have talking about the mixing flap arm on passenger side if you don't have air repartition on vents, it happened to me few months ago, the long metal lever hidden on the side of console is this one for distribution #9 on the drawing

Thanks for posting the diagram. In my case, one item I need to correct is part 9, the linkage rid, has disconnected from part 30, the lower piece in the console. I've freed it so I can switch between vent, floor, and defrost. The other arm seemed to affect the heat when I manually moved it, but after reassembly, it didn't move when the car warmed or buttons were pushed.

[swisssaabist]

after your first attempt did you have calibrate the ACC ??
for testing the motors you can taking out them and run the ACC with running engine at idle if you observe them you can see if they works or not .that's for the second try
otherwise for the lower wheels you will find two small arrows on each wheels if you realign them the fitting is okay without asking questions.