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Old 11-23-2021, 05:30 AM   #1
2005 Sightseer 30B
 
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Problem with dash heat

Is this area where I would ask about MECHANICAL problems? My heat (engine, not coach) is not working. I made a trip up to youngest son's house this past Saturday, and I froze my patookus off! I turned on the dash heat, I even kicked in the rear heat. I froze!!


If anyone knows where I should start looking, I would appreciate the help. My Sightseer is on the Chevy Workhorse chassis.
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Old 11-23-2021, 08:59 AM   #2
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The controls on dash heater are often controlled by vacuum lines that are rubber and being near the enigne heat, they tend to get brittle an split or break, so that might be the first place I would look, even thought there are several things which may also become a problem.
Under the hood there are likely to be several diffferent small tubes and you will often see the lines for the windshield washers firstbut keep looking for the same type/size tube. There is usually some form of plastic fitting where several of the vacuum lines come togehter to split and go to different functions so looking and feeeling several of those may find one or more which are brittle when you squeeze them. I lean toward replacing most of them if I find several near breaking, just as a way to avoid one today and one next week??
A full vacuum leak can also casue various other things to act funky, so it may also be a case of the tubing getting older and drops off the back of the controls!

Top of the head guessing there!

As a hint on getting quick help, it is often true that driving it into a car parts store may find a guy who would come out and point to the vacuum lines and sell you a replacement?
My wife can get amazing help when she does the asking , where I tend to get some phoney excuse!
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Old 11-23-2021, 09:37 AM   #3
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LOL!! Your DW gets results due to chivalry. That's my story and I'm sticking with it! Part of it IS the fact that men don't expect women to know how to do ANYTHING mechanical. If I can bat my eyelashes at a man who is feeling chivalrous and get him to do it for me, I will do it in a split second! That is, as long as they aren't being condescending. Just a quicky - my youngest son bought a house a decent distance from where he was renting, and didn't want to do many, many small load trips. So, he rented the largest Uhaul he could find and put me as the driver. The clerk gave him a ration of - crap - about his MOMMY doing the driving. My son's response? "She is a commercial driver, a$$hole, everything from 18 wheelers to school buses. How about YOU? Could YOU drive a vehicle over 80 feet long and not hit anything???" He makes me so proud!! And that should tell you who is the driver for our coach.
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Old 11-23-2021, 09:40 AM   #4
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OH, one more question, please. We recently had to have the AC (engine, not coach) rebuilt. Would any of those lines have been disconnected, replaced, etc. when that was done? If so, I'll take it back to the shop that did the work and have them fix it for free!
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Old 11-23-2021, 10:23 AM   #5
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Just like your automobile, the dash heat is a by product of the hot water in the radiator. In a car, when the dash heat doesn't "blow hot" as they say, the issue is almost always the thermostat in the engine's cooling system.

If it fails, when it's open the water in the radiator doesn't get hot enough to make the heater core warm.

This issue is definitely a chassis issue and you need a basic auto mechanic to do the troubleshooting. It's not likely that the A/C work had anything to do with this... but never say never. In general the air conditioning system and the heating system are totally separate except that the fan blows the hot or cold air into the cabin.

It can be the vacuum lines, or the valves or even the heater core but those are always options to be investigated AFTER checking the radiator and engine thermostat.

PS. I moved your thread to the Class A Motorhome forum because the subject here is your chassis' dash heater. The forum you chose was for heating and A/C but for the House part of the RV. I also changed your title to be more descriptive of the issue.
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Old 11-23-2021, 12:58 PM   #6
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I'm not at all sure of your specific RV but there are many which have the air going to the AC also passing though the section which has the heating coils in it.
So there is a valve that should open and close depending on which is beingused and it can give trouble if it sticks on the heating position.
If the air passing for cooling is also passing over the hotwater in the coils becasue the valve did not close right, it winds up both heat and cool can be working, so that feels like there is no cooling as the warm is too much!

One system uses the vacuum to move doors/flaps to let the air blow through one or another channel to heat or cool and that can be wrong or the other can leave both working at the same time and you just get a combo of hot and cold!

That can get into some questions that need somebody who has looked at that part in the last ten years! Sorry, I've not been there in a long time.
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Old 11-28-2021, 06:07 PM   #7
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LadyFaire, not sure what system you have but it is probably an Evans-Tempcon. Almost all of the dash heat and ventilation system was installed by Winnebago. From the Workhorse chassis it would use one vacuum line and two antifreeze lines from the engine - that's it. everything else was Winnebago. Here is a link to the Evans-Tempcon information with troubleshooting tips.

https://www.proairllc.com/design-eng...empcon-guides/

There is a water valve that opens and closes to send hot antifreeze through the heater core for heat or off for cool/vent as you turn the heat control on the dash from red to blue. In order of failure, the vacuum lines/system that MoRich mentioned are high failure items, followed by that water valve, and lastly the dash control unit.
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Old 11-28-2021, 06:15 PM   #8
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Here's another thought. The doors that MoRich mentions typically control where the air comes out of the dash - either floor, vent, and/or defroster - or some combination of these. The water valve controls the heat. If you are having vacuum hose problems, then the flow of air out of the dash would also be screwed up. For example, you set the control to blow out at your feet but it blows out the defroster instead. Another sign of a vacuum leak is if the air blows correctly until you put the engine under a heavy load like trying to accelerate while climbing a hill.
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Old 11-28-2021, 09:14 PM   #9
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Just had the same issue with my dash heat. The heater core was shot and had to be replaced
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Old 11-30-2021, 09:02 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by LadyFaire View Post
Is this area where I would ask about MECHANICAL problems? My heat (engine, not coach) is not working. I made a trip up to youngest son's house this past Saturday, and I froze my patookus off! I turned on the dash heat, I even kicked in the rear heat. I froze!!


If anyone knows where I should start looking, I would appreciate the help. My Sightseer is on the Chevy Workhorse chassis.
Is air blowing out the heater ducts at all? Often they use plastic tubing instead of rubber hoses for the vacuum lines and they tend to not react well to UV Light and can end up splitting most of their length. There is also often a plastic vacuum reservoir mounted behind the front structural bumper frame that gets a lot of road splash and sun damage to its rubber connecting splice that may at times need attention.

Its a pretty simple system however you need to put on your Dick Tracy hat and methodically go through it. First thing would be to find the main hot water valve and verify that it is opening meaning its hot on both sides of the valve after the engine is warmed up and the heat has been turned on for a while. The valve or vacuum line going to it could be defective or simply not connected properly. When you put it on AC now does air blow out the AC vents or just come out the defroster? If air comes mostly out of the defroster with a little coming out of the AC and Heat vents in the dash then its in Limp Mode due to excess vacuum leaks. The tubing is usually available only in black at most autoparts stores and is usually called emissions tubing.
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Old 11-30-2021, 09:45 PM   #11
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I get air out of the ducts/vents - it is just cold air. We had the dash AC completely rebuilt back in August, and it does blow as it is supposed to, and it is good and cold. I will put on my Dick Tracy hat (haven't heard THAT in decades!!) and check the hot water valve - once I figure out where it is supposed to be.

Thanks to everyone who is helping me with this. I have 'automotive smarts' in some areas and am a total dumb blonde in others. This is my first motor home, so there is a lot that seems as though it SHOULD be familiar, but leaves me scratching my head. I'm going to be asking a LOT of 'dumb' questions, I'm afraid, and I appreciate the patience! My DH is less automotively inclined than I am and my mechanic son lives in FL (we're in VA), so I don't have an offspring I can impose upon for this sort of thing. I DO appreciate it!
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Old 12-01-2021, 06:22 AM   #12
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I know sometimes its easier said than done but it is basically as simple as following the smaller diameter hot water hoses coming from the engine block to the heater and identifying the valve. Even if you can't find the valve if you can find the two heater hoses and safely get your hands on them to lightly touch them without getting burned you can just simply check them both with the heater turned on to see if they both feel hot as that would indicate hot coolant is flowing both into and out of the heater core. Most of that is on the passenger side of the coach under the hood.

At least on a Winnebago Class A Gas Motor Home the dash is on hinges and easily flips up making it very easy to access the components inside it and below. You may need a short stick to keep it propped open so it won't flip down on you while your checking things.

BTW: Liked your tag line (perhaps automatically generated) about the "Free Lunch" and farmers knowing you have to work for it. I learned about the cost of the "Free Lunch" years ago by watching Larry Storch and Forrest Tucker on F-Troup commenting on how current finances meant they would have to raise the price of the "Free Lunch" AGAIN!
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