Toyota Lucida.

[Cass 2JZGTE]

My mate has one of these people carrier things and his heater is not heating up what can the problem be?

I looked at the fuses and all looked ok apart from everything being in jap writing :ffs:

Any ideas most welcome!

Cheers Cass.

[martin1]

Dont wish to butt in on any body but have you tried www.estimaownersclub.com they have quite a bit of knowledge about this type of thing.

[Karma Supra]

Heater VCV...... or headgasket!

[Cass 2JZGTE]

Dont wish to butt in on any body but have you tried www.estimaownersclub.com they have quite a bit of knowledge about this type of thing.

Perfect Martin i'll give him the net address first thing in the morning Cheers

[Old Bird]

My mate has one of these people carrier things and his heater is not heating up what can the problem be?

I looked at the fuses and all looked ok apart from everything being in jap writing :ffs:

Any ideas most welcome!

Cheers Cass.

One easy thing it might be is air in the system. These Aces and Estimas are devils for airlocks. Get him to drain it and then re-fill very very slowly. I always say that after the first pint, if your back is killing, then you are doing it slow enough.... If the coolant 'glugs' at all as it goes in then you have lost it....you have air. Air can be drawn in if there is a leak anywhere....so it's worth checking all the hoses etc.

The other thing is that it is one of the first signs of the head gasket. Air is drawn in and pushes the coolant out....so as the coolant goes, it will overheat. Does he lose any coolant do you know? If he never loses any, it is worth looking at the air first.

I've got a lot of air out of mine by leaving the rad cap off when standing. Leaving it off allows the air that rises out of the still warm water to be released.....instead of building up as pressure under the cap. Like the bubbles rising in a kettle. My coolant can go down by 3/4 pint overnight....and there are no leaks anywhere. My heater is no slightly warm....but not hot by any means. To be sure I'm having the gasket done again.

Get him to look at www.townace.com which is a site called Ace Answers.

Apart from being a brill site for info, it gives a link to a site called the Board of Knowledge, which is a godsend for anyone with one of these vans. Also, as Martin says, try estimaowners.com

Hope that helps

Ang x

[GIDDLEPIN]

Good reply Ang

[Old Bird]

Good reply Ang

Sorry...just read it again and it's a Lucida isn't it.

So forget the Ace links and just try estimaowners.com

Estimas have more signs of head gasket problems than Aces.

Is there steam when starting, is the starting misfiring.....early running after starting 'lumpy'?

They do keep going for a while with the gasket going, but to be honest, if there is no steam etc then I'd go for the air first.

Ang x

[Old Bird]

Ok...brain has just fired one cell up so I'm back......

Here's what he needs to do......

It's my understanding that Lucidas don't have a rad cap.....so take the expansion bottle top off and top up coolant, then start it up. There will probably be bubbles in the coolant. Leave it running....( my mates took a couple of hours to clear) keeping an eye on it, and when the bubbles stop, the air will be out and the heater should work.

If the bubbles don't stop, then it might be the head gasket.

Run it to an MOT place and get them to shove the emmissions tester in the top of the water thingy to check for exhaust gases. Get a pressure test done on the head.

There....that makes more sense eh?......

Ang x

[Karma Supra]

Don't thay have a VCV valve that sends how water to the heater matrix? Most of the bigger toyotas I have worked on have them, and they often fail, leaving the sympom of a working blower, but cold air.

Can easily be bypased!

The easiest way to tell if you have one it not is your heater controls are they eletric (soft touch), or more like the old fashioned type where the controls actually move a cable to manually control things.