Anyone own a Chevy Venture Mini Van??

[Xcusme]

I've always had trouble getting adequate heat outta this van. Mine has the rear heater-A/C as well. There have been a few TSB's about the lack of heat from the 'sister vans' (Montana etc) but trips back to the dealer were a waste of time. Chevy is now installing an add-on aux. coolant recirc. pump to boost coolant flow but it's only a patch solution. I have checked just about everything I can think of , thermostats, hoses, coolant level etc , and all looks normal. This has to be a design issue, as others have had the same problem. This the first Chevy I have owned that wouldn't blow you doors off with heat. <br /><br />So that's the center of this post, to find out if anyone else is having , or has had the same problem, and how they fixed it (or not-as the case may be).<br /><br /> Still freezing , here in the Midwest........

 

[SpinnerBait_Nut]

Re: Anyone own a Chevy Venture Mini Van??

If the water pump is not strong enough, the water will be cool by the time it reaches the rear core if your's is set up that way.<br /><br />If it's set up to provide heat from the front core, you will never have the right heat cause it will cool off as it travels to the rear of the van.<br /><br />On my Mark3 conversion, it is set up with it's own heater core in rear with it's own controls and it does a real good job.<br /><br />But that is on a full size.

 

[Xcusme]

Re: Anyone own a Chevy Venture Mini Van??

SBN,<br />GM just 'T's' the feed line fitting to the rear core. Some rocket scientist at GM figured that putting a flow restrictor in-line to the front core would build static pressure to the rear core, nice on paper, not so good in the real world. Both core get coolant at the same time.One of the TSB's addressed the problem by telling dealers to 'ream out the flow restrictor' There was no insulation on the 2 exposed heater lines going to the rear core, I changed that. How they figured that those 2 lines would not loose a great deal of heat, at highway speeds, at -20 degrees beats me. As a side note, the A/C suction line to the rear wasn't factory insulated either.<br /><br />A life long friend of mine who ownes an auto repair shop has mentioned that he has replaced many small plastic flow restrictors that are in the block feeding TO the front core on paggengers cars with great success. I'll have to yank that supply line and see if GM has one in there too. It seems that the flow rate is the problem. I havn't had any cooling issues with the motor. even in the summer, which would seem to eliminate a water pump pressure concern, but I'll look at that as well.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Anyone own a Chevy Venture Mini Van??

We have a 99 Montana which is basiclly the same. The heater in it will definetly warm you up. Never had any problems in that area. I do go through rotors and pads too often, the wife is awful hard on them.

 

[Xcusme]

Re: Anyone own a Chevy Venture Mini Van??

Ken, <br />Thanks for your input. I have a '98. I just replaced the front pads on mine at 48K. I needed to replace both rotors. They were worn to a nub. Funny thing was, not a peep from the 'squeelers' on the pads, in fact, they made no noise at all, which came as a big surprise. Buddy told me the metalic pads are really rough on the rotors.

 

[Kenneth Brown]

Re: Anyone own a Chevy Venture Mini Van??

Yep, and thats all I have been able to find. 98 model and 48 k? Wow, I have 103000 on ours. The sqeulers don't always do very well. If you have yours turned pay the fella doing it an extra $5-10 to do it SLOW. They will chatter if they do the standard quick cuts with a final slow finish cut. Another thing- Don't use a impact wrench. It will warp the rotor and always have a pulse, and its not from the abs. Make sure tire shops do it by hand also. One final point. Whenever you go to push the piston back in the caliper a c clamp is fine, just like the old style. The difference is just as soon as you put pressure on it loosen the bleeder screw. This will allow the fluid to escape instead of going bacwards in the system and possibly putting rust/comtaminants in one of the sensors. Whenever you have the piston all the way in tighten the screw up before loosing the clamp. You WILL NOT need to bleed the brakes when done. You will probably need a basting bulb to get fluid in the master cylinder, its buried under the dash and is a royal pain. By the way, I'm on set number 5 of pads and number 3 of rotors, the first set was the best, all downhill froim now on. GOOD LUCK