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[Friend in PA]

I was getting little to no heat in my 2001 Catera at all so I chased all the relevant threads and formulated a plan of attack.

After much flailing about and wailing and gnashing of teeth it turns out the biggest issue was a bad HCV valve and a clogged heater core.

Given all the issues many have posted with the HCV valves I ended up swapping out the HCV for a 5/8 brass T for now. Will consider either replacing it with a new HCV or a valved T or Y connector so I can manually turn on the flow to the core for the Winter months and off for Summer. I began to get a small amount of heat shortly after doing the swap, but not enough. I flushed out the old Dexcool until I had pure water and added a bottle of Blue Devil radiator flush. I ran it for about an hour and a half including a 25 mile round trip to town. While driving the heat continued to get better until it was quite hot. Radiator temp was just shy of 50% on the gauge.

Drained and flushed again...and drained the radiator and reservoir as far as they would drain. I added 6 quarts of Prestone Platinum to the water that remained in the heater core and the engine and that topped the system up completely. After running another short drive to force the air out of the heater core I now have seriously "like new" heat on the driver's side, but sadly not the passenger side. I will check the activator rods under the passenger side sometime this week and see if I can find the correct operating rod to zip tie into the correct position to open up the mix valve flap for the winter. Heat will then be controlled by fan speed. Even without that the car gets plenty warm...

Gonna have to leave it like that for the winter.
 

[TheBoy]

Yes, next step is to check the little actuators on the passenger side haven't popped off the actuators themselves


WRT to HBV, whilst they do tend to fail/leak every few years, I'd stick with that.  The fact that your heater core was blocked wouldn't have helped its cause, and does suggest possibly its suffered from poor quality coolant in the past (ie, too weak, or just too old)

[Friend in PA]

Yepper, actuator rod disconnect is what I suspect to be the issue although actuator motor failure is also on the "possibles" list.

After speaking with my mom about her experience I found that she said the heat hasn't worked in "a long time" (several years) which leads me to believe the HCV died and since fluid stopped circulating through the core for several years..and then essentially sat for about three more years during and after covid while she drove it a total of around 300 miles...the core became plugged with gunk. I did save the HCV which seems to be a lightweight piece of junk IMO.

For now, the biggest problem has been resolved thankfully--in large part because of you folks on this forum who have built and maintained this collection of knowledge.

My hat's off to you for this service to the community!

[Doctor Gollum]

If I ever get over to Pittsburgh, I will let you know and can give you a hand swapping out the heater core/etc. Unlikely to be this side of January though 

[Friend in PA]

Thanks for the thought Doc!

If all goes well I'd like to do the timing belt next warm season. Odometer sits at 73000 so it needs doing.

I'm all the way up in the northeast corner so I'm about 300 miles NE of Pittsburg. If you ever get up this way the coffee pot is always on.

[Doctor Gollum]

  we kinda get stuck in the city. Sounds like you might actually be nearer Philly or Newark...