Imagine driving a car where the heater core has plugged while the outside temperature is a brisk -10F? Oh the joys of old car ownership are not without their funny haha moments.
the heater core in my 96 Beretta is plugged from all the coolanty-oily goodness from when the intake gasket failed... so, as a result, the heater isn't heating. It's COLD!!!!
I don't think I have ever been so cold in a car in my fucking life. I bought a new core this morning, rather than trying to flush it out.

Anyone with similar experiences?

yuck... yeah, I had a diesel rabbit (cold to begin with) with a plugged core for a winter car once.

Oddly enough, it started EVERY time though.

Posted by bandi yuck... yeah, I had a diesel rabbit (cold to begin with) with a plugged core for a winter car once. Oddly enough, it started EVERY time though.

that's the way the Beretta is... starts every time. When the temperature gets over 32F or so, the heater puts out enough heat where driving the car is bearable... but when it gets cold enough, it just can't keep up with it and you freeze your ballsack off.
My brother was supposed to put the car on the lift and flush the core out yesterday, but had something to do with his kids. I DO NOT want to drive my Cobalt in the winter shit, but yesterday morning, faced with a chilly ride to work, or the Cobalts' heated cabin, well, we drove the Cobalt.
Winter beaters are so much fun, just for the fact of their weird quirks. It's an adventure!

I'm enjoying my winter beater immensely! A car you aren't afraid of beating around just a little is always fun.

I'm such a pussy in the cold I've been considering putting some heated seat coils from a BMW I parted out a few years ago in the Tercel seats.

same here, back when i had my crx i had no heat for one winter. i thought it was probably the core so i bought a new one, (damn expensive for the crx too)
well then while i was installing it a friend of mines was in the car playing with the controls and found that the wire on the back of the heat control switch had come off. so all i needed to do was put that wire back on the hook and i would have had heat. was a cold winter too.

i guess that was my shittyness and not the cars...hahaha

Posted by bandi I'm enjoying my winter beater immensely! A car you aren't afraid of beating around just a little is always fun. I'm such a pussy in the cold I've been considering putting some heated seat coils from a BMW I parted out a few years ago in the Tercel seats.

I'd love to stuff a pair of heated seats in the Beretta, BUT... GM was never really big on heated barcaloungers in their cars.

my taurus has no heat, drove it last winter with no heat, it was BAD

I had a '79 Chevy pickup while I was in high school that had a leaky heater core. The previous owner put in ball valves to divert the coolant rather than fix the heater core.

I made it through the end of November, and gave in. Pain in the ass, but having heat again was oh so sweet.

Current car has climate control and heated seats. I have to drive 60 miles each way. No way am I screwing around in winter.

Posted by DelbertGrady I had a '79 Chevy pickup while I was in high school that had a leaky heater core. The previous owner put in ball valves to divert the coolant rather than fix the heater core. I made it through the end of November, and gave in. Pain in the ass, but having heat again was oh so sweet. Current car has climate control and heated seats. I have to drive 60 miles each way. No way am I screwing around in winter.

my 80 Mercury Zephyr was a douche for heat... you'd warm the car up and then after 20 or so minutes, you MIGHT have a trickle of warm air. The car had 200,000 miles on it and everything was just tired on it.

I drove my Gran Prix from Oklahoma to Alabama and back last winter with no heat. The worst part was having to drive with the windows down to keep the windshield from fogging over.

73 CJ5. Got heat by unwrappin the beach towel from around the shifter. That and a "ceramic heater" that only heated fuses till they blew. Had heater core issues with both my 89 Mustang and 81 Fairmont. Must be a Fox body thing. Don't ask about the Kerosene heater experiment in the CJ. Just don't.

well, we flushed the heater core tonight on the Beretta and blew a huge wad of congealed shit out of it... I know have wonderful heat in my car.
AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
good thing, too, because the wind chill here is pushing -15F tonight.

When I bought this current cvpi it was summer, I didn't check to see if the heat worked, I assumed it did. Well it didn't, and yanking the whole dash out I really did not want to do. So I flushed the core, checked the vacuum lines for the climate control.. that was ok, so I took the passenger airbag out, found the actuator was the defective part, still didn't feel like yanking the dash to get it out, so I pulled a screw out, pushed it up so I could get the metal tab that turns the blend door, pulled it towards me (full heat), put the screw back, and full heat I have.

I had enough of driving around in the cold, there is now way I would ever do it for a whole winter, fixed it in late October.

Oh yeah. Memories of my 79 Zephyr. Heater core and steering pump were screwed and the car was a bitch to start in winter too. One night I got frost bite on both hands while getting the car started and the drive home was not very pleasant. I don't know which was worse. Steering the car or changing gears with frost bitten hands.

Sometimes while surfing in the winter it will get so cold, that after awhile you can't feel your feet, you usually don't discover that fact till you try to stand up. Not feeling your feet will result in a crash, crashes cause a brand new influx of cold water to flush into the suit.

It is always useful to drink lots of coffee before surfing, this insures a nice supply of wonderful warm urine.........AAHH!!!.......AAAHH!!

You could always try that till you get the core replaced.

flushing the shit out of the core seemed to do the trick... the car heats up quickly, much quicker than the Monte Carlo with the same engine.
So far, the Beretta is serving me well... just wish the V6 was better on gas.

I guess that is better than, sitting in a puddle of your own lukewarm piss..

I have a block heater on my truck........I hate being cold......Winter sucks. I can take heat better than cold...