Help! No heat in my Taurus.

[jmg]

Hoping someone has an alternative fix to what I was told yesterday. Hadn't needed to use the heat on the Taurus(2006 SEL w/ 98,000 mi.) until Wed. morning and no heat. None at all, despite trying all settings. Fan works fine. Had the cooling system flushed about 6 wks. ago and thought everything was ok. No change in temp gauge or anything and no prev. problems. Wife took it in yest. to the place that had done the flush and they said the heater core was plugged and wanted about $700.00 to replace it. Is that in the ballpark? Is there another fix, since there had been no indication of a leak in it or anything? Does the heater core get flushed during a coolant system flush. Don't really need any more expenses right now so any help will be appreciated. Soon, I hope. Thanks.

[Scott K]

You could try doing a back flush to the heater core, it may help some, or get you by until you can prepare for the $700 at a later date.

[Jeremy airjer W]

I'm going to bet the coolant was the normal rusty brown mud. A coolant flush and a back flush are two different things. I have been pretty successful back flushing the heater cores on these.

As far as replacement the dash needs to be somewhat pulled to change the heater core. There is a fair amount of labor time involved.

[jmg]

Update on the no heat Taurus. Took it in to a local dealer today. They said the circulation through the heater core was good. The problem was a faulty temp blend door motor. It was replaced for far less than the other place wanted for the core replacement with all the dashboard labor, etc.

Seems to be putting out plenty of heat now. Hope that was the answer.

Thanks to you good folks who responded to my questions. Have a great weekend.

[Jeremy airjer W]

I'm surprised that they did not check that. It's one of the first things I do with a no heat complaint. You can hear the difference in the way the air flows when you change between hot and cold.

[jmg]

Jeremy. I was both happy and P.O.'d when I found out what it was. I nearly told my wife to go ahead and have the new heater core put in. Glad I listended to the little voice that told me to wait. She would have been steaming enough to supply hot air in the car all Winter if we had done all that and it wasn't the problem. Hope this solves the problem, since I have had the joy of having to replace a heater core in a past Sable we had. Very happy to have had an acquaintance who was a Ford mechanic who did for me. Just about have to be an acrobat to maneuver through the dashboard routine. Thanks again for your response.