I just bought a 2001 1500 for my oldest who'll start driving it in Nov. Everything was working great when I was first looking at it but it was around 80 degrees when we bought it. Never thought to check the heater. Duh! Get in this morning with temps around 50 and all it's doing is blowing cold air. Have these trucks had any heater issues that are fairly common that all you seasoned pros know about? Thanks for the help.

 

It is a very common problem for these trucks to get all clogged up in the heater core. Some people try to backflush them to get some of the crap out, with usually only getting mediocre heat. I on the other hand just went ahead and replaced mine and it has been blowing hot air ever since!

 

Thanks for the info. I haven't looked to see where the heater core is. Is this a pain in the **** job under the dash or rather simple to get at.

 

What do you hear when you move the temp control from cold to hot?

 

pain. you have to pull the dash.
backflush heater both ways.
make sure t-stat is working and engine is hot.

 

Not a thing. Just the turning of the ****.

 

Not what I was hoping to hear. Thanks for the info.

 

lack of heat is a very common problem. Do a search and you will seel lots of questions and very few success stories.

 

just my $.02 but if where you are it's already 50 deg. outside then you won't even need it very much longer.

it's a pretty large job to change out the heater core.

Plus hes just starting to drive so I assume this is his first car. My first car was a '90 Cavilier with not heat, no A/C, No second gear, A hole in the floor board and 3 diff. colors. I still LOVED it at the time.

it will be good for him.

 

A lot of people on here have said that swapping out the heater core is a tough job or PITA to do. I must have just had good luck with mine. I did it relatively easily and didn't run into any problems (believe it or not). When I did it I just loosened up the dash and pulled it back rather than actually pulling it out. You can do it either way. If you take the dash all the way out, then you will have more work, but the actual core will be easier to get to. If you do it my way then there won't be nearly as much work, but you will have to wiggle and shake the heater core out of there. But trust me, it does come out without breaking the dash!