Climate Control

No Heat = Bad Vacuum Solenoid

When I had my hot water valve replaced on my car this summer, I had fully cold A/C but no heat. When I disconnected vacuum to the valve, I got heat so I knew there was no blockage. With the help of many list members, I finally found the culprit to be a bad solenoid. Pretty easy fix:

-Remove both sides of center console

-Vacuum solenoids are located on a strip in front of the radio. There is a black cover over them held on by 2 phillips screws.

-1 more phillips holds the strip of solenoids in place.

-The strip can be removed from the drivers side to work on(pretty obvious because that is the side where all the vacuum lines enter from).

-Each solenoid is held onto the strip by 1 small phillips screw and has 1 electrical male/female connection and 2 vacuum connections. Once this is all exposed, you can switch solenoids to see if one is bad or not. They control vacuum to various heat/cold flaps etc...

-Solenoid is about $50

-Words of advice: remove the radio, it will give you more room to work.

Doug M
'89 GT