My mom has a 1996 V6 3.0 Taurus. The heater is not working no matter how long you drive the car. Also, the temperature gauge does not rise very much above C. I changed out the thermostat thinking maybe the last thermostat was the fail open type. Same problem. My mom recently had a radiator leak then used the little beads to seal it. She may have done this more than once. There are currently no visible leaks and I topped off the water. As a result of her leak though, she may be out of coolant but I can't imagine this would keep the car from heating up. Any suggestions?

Mike

 

Chances are that the Heater Core is clogged; which was caused by the radiator stop-leak beads you or your mother used to stop the earlier radiator leak. Additionally, the radiator itself may be also clogged for the same reason. To check, disconnect the Heater Core Return-Hose coming from the fire-wall area, then start the car, while running the engine, see if any water/antifreeze steadily flows out of the heater-core. If not, remove the other heater core hose to see is anything is flowing into the heater core. If not, most likely the radiator is clogged (assuming that the water pump is operating).

 

Would this cause the low temperature gauge? The temperature never goes much above Cold. I've always experienced that when there is no circulation (clogged radiator, bad thermostat, bad pump) the car overheats.

 

From the start, your situation (according to what you have listed) sounded strange to me.
If you haven't already, I would still check the "flow" of the system as I mentioned earlier reply (same as you, I would think that the engine would over-heat is there wasn't any flow)... but its a good start in the process of elimination. Also, with the engine cool/cold, check to see if your Cooling-Fan is instantly & continually running once you start the engine.. If so, that would very much so hamper the engine from warming up ?
KEEP ME UPDATED

 

I just caught something you mentioned at the end of your initial posting. You said that it may be a chance that the coolant level is low. If this is the case, it is possible that there is enough coolant to keep the engine from over-heating, but at the same being not enough coolant in the system to properly feed through the heat-core ( I have witness this many times when there wasn't any heat coming from the interior vents)? So, you must make sure your system is FULL first before considering anything else as being the problem.

 

do anyone have a ideal where i can get diagrams of where the heatercore hoses r located

 

Don't need a diagram. The heater hoses are located btwn the rear of engine and the firewall just about right in the ceter of the car.