I just bought a 95ti sport w/ only 34k on it. Love it so far. The heater seems to blow warm air at best..anyone else have a problem like this?

Any suggestions would help cause Winter is brutal in Wisconsin.......

check the level of your coolant. If it is too low, it won't work to it's full potential or won't even work at all.

Could be a loose cable to the temp dial.
If it's cold at idle and luke warm at speed, that might be the problem. You need to remove the glove box and knee bolster. Reinstall cable and secure with a small screw.

Another possibilty is a faulty bypass valve located on the firewall. I would replace that first since it might be easier.

my first guess would be a thermostat stuck open. it will overcool the engine.

Check If Your Temp Gauge Reads Above 1/4 Cold. If It Does The Heater Valve Would Be The Next Thing To Check. With The Heat Wide Open Both Hoses Shoud Be Hot. The Valve Is Mounted On The Firewall Behind The Intake.

Hi, I have a question. Where the temp gauge is supposed to show at normal state? Half-way? More that half way?
Thanks!

Pretty much center. Maybe a needle width off center.

I found this thread because I had the same problem. The heater was warm at best, but only if you turned on cab air recycle. Without the cab air recycle it wasn't warm at all.
We had it serviced yesterday and they replaced the thermostat (said it was stuck open). The heat works better, no doubt, because now we have somewhat-hot air without cab air recycle turned on, and pretty-hot air with the cab recycle on. However there are two things bugging me:
1) Am I spoiled by every other car I've ever owned? Or are we supposed to feel HOT air coming out of our 318ti vents? My mazda blows damn-hot air, and with the new thermostat the beamer's air isn't as hot as the mazda's.
2) This is a mystery: if I turn the blower selector dial to the place between feet & face, the air turns COLD. The outside air is cold here right now.
Do you think it could be a faulty bypass valve? That is some strange behavior...my thinking is that the air should always be hot regardless of blower dial position, and if I fix that problem the hot air should also be hotter.
Anyone have any ideas?

It should be fairly hot but never was as warm as my Mazda either.
Could be air in the system.
It's easy enough to check the bypass valve.
Once the t-stat is open and your heat is on both hoses should be warm.

Ahhh, thanks 1996. That's interesting about the heat not being as hot.

Mine is VERY hot. Just replaced my radiator and flushed my cooling system. Did the collant system bleed procedure as documented in my Bentley manual. It's not kinda warm, it's hot and it's supposed to be.

I would say air in system. burp it, worked for me last year now it's hot city!!!!!

vwt3

Thanks for the suggestion vwt3...but how do I burp it?
:smile:

Severian, you can burp the radiator by loosening the plastic screw at the top or the radiator next to the fill cap, start the engine and let run. You will loose some coolant so you might want to put something under your car. Let the coolant flow from the hole where the screw is until you only have coolant and no air escaping, then tighten up the screw. easy. My heater was blowing cold this fall, I replaced the bowden cable from the temp dial to the heater box and it fixed mine. Check to see how far the cable is opening the flap at the box, it should open all the way, mine wasn't.

Thanks very much Breeze30.

Do you have a diagram or other online resource that describes the heater box and how I would access it? Is this the same cable mentioned earlier in this thread where the poster said I should remove the glove box and the knee bolster? I will try to find diagrams of these as well, but I wonder if I have the aptitude to perform this procedure, so to speak.

I've changed the oil in her a few times now, and I installed car stereo stuff in another car of mine, but I don't have experience with glove boxes, and I don't know what a knee bolster is. I'm willing to learn though!