Daihatsu Terios heater not blowing hot

Hi guys
Our daughter just bought her first car - a 2002 mint condition Terios with 130,000 k’s and the only one thing really not working 100% is the heater…the cold air con works a treat but when you dial around to the hot side of the temp gauge, it still blows cold… someone told me their heater tap can play up however it seems to be getting hot water to one side of the plastic tap because when you undo it ( screw it out ) hot water squirts out everywhere… should I disconnect both hoses though and see as it may only be getting to one side of the tap and not through it and out the other side ?

Apparently this was a common problem with them…really hoping it’s not the heater core !

I can provide pics of the hoses and tap I’m referring to.
Cheers and thanks for any help.

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not sure about these but the heater tap failing is a common problem on certain model commodores, had that hassle, easiest to replace the tap and give the cooling system a good flush at the same time and refill with decent coolant

All good folks … I fixed the issue already

I was really hoping it wasn’t the heater core ( big hassle and lots of $$$ ) and figured if it’s the heater tap, then a wrecker could probably help me out…

Turned out to be a simple fix with superglue ! The heater / cooler dial or knob ( whichever is more appropriate ) has a particular shape on the back of it ( known as a “key way” ) which slides over the spindle sticking out of the dash board so as you turn the heater / cooler dial, this in turn rotates the spindle around which is connected to the cable going down to the heater tap. That’s what controls the flow of the hot water coming through for hot or cold out of the vents.
As it turned out, the plastic on the backside of the heater / cooler dial had cracked and wasn’t therefore locking or holding like it should on the spindle shaft. So as you turned the dial, it was simply rotating on the spindle shaft which was still sitting in the cold position !!!

A couple of squirts with some $2 super glue ( from The Reject Shop - not too reject if you ask me LOL ! ) and the plastic is solid again, now as you rotate the dial, the key way is locking like it should onto the spindle and this is turning the heater tap like it should. So happy days - easy fix !
I’ll upload a quick little video to my youtube channel ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXLywgAtWo05Z_-fPjW5yYA ) and facebook page too ( https://facebook.com/4WheelingInNSW ) so it may help any others out there with the same issue.

Cheers guys and thanks for the info I was sent anyway.

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