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Originally Posted by SusanSan
Thank you so much Morich and TravatoJohn.
The heat/air conditioning front windshield defroster is not blowing any warm air against the front window and today at the RV dealership I asked them to open the hood and there was no coolant in the reservoir meant for coolant. We didn’t look at the windshield washer fluid reservoir. We live in Michigan, so this is an important feature, even though we are driving south this weekend. The RV dealership told me to go by coolant, but they did not tell me which one. They didn’t sell any!I called Winnebago with my VIN number ready, they referred me to a number at Dodge (Fleet?) who couldn’t help me.
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Easy for confusion to work into a discussion, so I might throw in some of my thoughts to help clear some of that.
There is a reservoir for windshield cleaning fluid. There is also a much bigger tank for the engine cooling system that involves the big radiator out front!
In the first small tank, we put windshield washer fluid and it sprays on the windshield! That is a different fluid from what we put in the second system for the radiator and engine!
Not to confuse the two as the second is much different and will take the paint of the car if sprayed on the windshield!
Windshield washer fluid versus what we normally call antifreeze!
But the tank you may have seen under the hood and empty may be what is often called an "overflow tank".
How much to expect in that tank may vary quite a lot due to different engine temperatures and driving.
There is often a line on the side of this overflow tank and filling to that line is the normal practice. If the radiator gets a little too hot on a hot day, some of the excess fluid may move to the overflow tank. Or when the engine cools, that fluid may move back into the cooling system again.
Kind of like storing fluid instead of pumping it out on the ground and then needing to add more!
But that fluid is also what moves through the a mini radiator inside under the dash for the heater and defroster!
IF the radiator gets so low on water and antifreeze that none of the hot water gets to the small radiator inside, you will likely not get heat and this heat will also be missing in the defroster.
Both heater and defroster air blow over the same little radiator under the dash and the only thing that changes is which direction the air moves, up to the windshield or down to your feet, etc.!
But what I think may be a problem is the airflow over that small inside radiator!
The dash switches may not be changing where the air flows down to feet or up to windshield! Those both go through the same place to pick up the heat from the hot water but if you are getting warm air on heater but no air going to the windshield it is not likely to be the fluid but the controls that change where the air blows!
For antifreeze. I rarely have found any one brand or type that is far better than another. There are likely to be dozens of different brands from different companies. Ford sells FOMOCO, Dodge sells their house brand, etc.
for me, I go with a name brand like Prestone and call it good!
All this gee whiz stuff is part of finding a good place to have oil changes done as it is often part of the service to check these nit picking things.
I take things to Wal-Mart and they do it for me. If you get less personal service than you expect at Wal-Mart, I might suggest change is needed!
Point on RV dealers? IF you get within 40 feet of a mechanic and still have to ask them to open the hood, I might think them not too interested in working!
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