Snoopdogie187

HI,
I have a 93 Chylser Lebaron convertible and in general the temp gauge on the car never gets past 1/4 of the way up. Termostat was just changed like a month ago, and the car has been this way ever since we got it. (also changed the radiator and most of the anti-freeze). I'm not sure what else could be causing this. The fan never kicks on until the engine is really hot (and that only happens after it sits a long time).
I have thought about getting a hotter temp Termostat but than it would be hotter than what OEM is listed as. (I wouldn't worryabout it so much but its already getting cold and its only going to get colder out)
On top of that, there is a second issue. The climate control has some type of issue. The temp selctor works fine, so does the a/c button, and fan speed. What doesn't is you can't select where you want the air to go. It is mostly going to the defrost and also maybe to the floor, but I don't know about the floor as well. On top of that, the middle vents blow out cold air (or cold since its cold now). I will check Tuesday if it does this with the fan off or only when its on. If you press a button to change where the air goes, there is no sound and nothing happens.
The defrost vent gets warm, but never hot, not how any other car we have is. It is just enough to take the chill off of your hands and leave them cold. Also if you put it on max fan speed, it won't really be much hotter than the outside temp. Being a soft top convertible with leather seats, this is a pain each time I have to drive it.
I am wondering if the heater core is plugged up, the previous owners put some stop leak stuff into the radiator.
I'm also wondering if the climate control unit uses an electric motor or the vacume lines to choose the directoin of the air and how would I check to make sure that is working.
I prefer not to disasemble the whole dash if I can avoid it, but there is still a new more months of winter and I might just get annoyed enough to do it one day.

Midnight Tech

Snoop, once it gets warmed up as much as it will go, check the temp of both the hoses going into the firewall for your heater. They should both be about the same temp (fairly hot). If they're not or if one's warmer than the other you definitely have a flow problem.
Researching blend door....is it an automatic temp control car?

dkimbo

I believe Midnight Tech is on the right track. Some of the early 90's Chryslers had vacuum controlled valves on one of the heater hoses so that the hot coolant would not flow through the heater core during warm weather (or temp control set to cold) these valves would sometimes stick in the closed position.
Another common failure with manual controlled temperature doors is a broken or misadjusted linkage. you do not have to disassemble the dash to check or adjust this.
Remove the manual control assembly from dash and locate the temp control linkage ( slide the temp lever back & forth to see which is moving. Disconnect linkage from lever and see if you can hear the temp door stop at full cold then hot.With the engine running at normal temp you should now have good heat. If so the linkage is out of adjustment.
With the linkage still disconnected move it to cold position till it stops, with a pair of pliers carefully push the linkage in a little more reconnect the linkage and that should do it.

pat mcgroin

Concerning the guage only getting to 1/4.
Have you checked or replaced the sending unit?
If not it could be a good thing as they dont cost much and at least you could rule that out.
I will say however that I would guess that isnt the trouble due to the cold airflow of the heater and the fact that the radiator fan doesnt kick in until it is very hot.

As stated above check the warmth of the hoses to assure good flow, but It sounds like a hotter thermostat would help here. Especially with it being a convertable.
If the guage shows actual temps then you have an idea how much hotter to buy. Usually the middle of the guage is about 200F.
I wouldnt worry so much about the recommended thermostat and going a bit higher. It wont overheat as it will open when it needs to. It will just open slightly later and thus give you some additional heat before it does.

Something that we do up here in Toledo since it gets much colder is to block a portion of the radiator to prevent airflow through it to help it retain more heat.
I wouldnt recommend it for you and your location though as your temps vary to a much higher degree. You could try it as a test setup just to see the difference though.

Has your radiator ever been changed? Possibly to a larger one eg single core to a dual core? That could also keep the temps from going up as there would be more surface area to allow more efficient cooling.

Snoopdogie187

I will check all of the houses later, after a nice hour drive.
The gauage doesn't have numbers on it unforntaintly, so just by going by the average of other cars, it is usually half way or so that is around normal temp.
The radiator was just changed like a month ago by myself, and I ordered a oe spec radiator, onlyone core, and it match the radiator that was in there almost perfectly (and that radiator I think was a chylser one).

I don't thik the temp control is automatic, the unit has a lever for the heat control (which I forgot to add before, it has a lot of resistance when you try to move it, and to put it to the setting to pull air from the outside almost feels like you might break something).
The fan is little slider selector, which is fairly easy to move, and the postion the air comes out is push buttons. This is all I know about the climate control right now.

I will double check, I do think the upper rad house gets hot, I think too hot to hold without getting burnt.

Some other stuff I will have to check probably this weekend, or thursday.

Thank you everyone for the input so far.

Snoopdogie187

Hi,
I checked the hoses that go into the firewall. Both of them are almost as hot as the upper rad hose, which is like i said before, is too hot too hold.

I did look at the linkage for the temp control, and it looks fine, but it goes to a cable, and I should check the other end of that. It might just need to be re greased.

I didn't get to the buttons yet, I didn't have a screwdriver with me, but probably thursday I will check those.

Snoopdogie187

UPDATE: I took a look at the controls. The tempurate is set by a door (that is what I heard anyway when I moved the cable myself). Besides the fan and the a/c, everythin else works off of vacuum lines I think. All the lines end right behind the glove box so its not too bad to work on. Also the heater hoses are by the drivers side, so I don't know if that matters.
I just don't know what to look for or what to do.
I checked the firewall and didn't see a single vacuum line going into the car.
I did find a valve for the recirculting setting, and it doesn't seem like the vacuum lines are putting any effort into it at all.

Update 2: I think I found the issue. I came across a simular problem on a 92 dodge caravan, and it said the vacuum line comes off the brake boster in the front. I went out and checked and saw a very tiny line (smaller than what is in the car). Looking at it more, it is completely gone, You can't touch it without if beaking apart.

I guess the next question is if anyone knows how to relace this hose.
I wouldn't even bother trying to use tape on it. It is so dry rotted there is little cracks everwhere on it.
It runs into the car right next to the heater hoses, so I don't know where it goes nor how to get to it.

Midnight Tech

A lot of vehicles pull vacuum from there instead of the manifold like they used to - I think it's supposed to make it a bit more convenient to get to....got fingers crossed for ya on this...

Snoopdogie187

Just an update.

I couldn't find the exact vacuum line to replace the old one, so I got a slightly larger one and use connectors to attach it. I had to drill out a new hole in the firewall for this, but now the air will go to where I select. The heat seems to be warmer now, and the a/c also seems to be colder. Now just the last thing to do, I notice someone put a zip tie and the end was rubbing up against some foam that connected the duct work together for the heat. I just need to fill in that gap and it should all be back to normal.

The upside is that this vacuum line is a lot thicker than the orginal one so I don't think it will wear down as fast.

Thank you to everyone who helped.

Midnight Tech

Very good sir!
Since you've marked it solved, gonna lock it down now!