dont listen to the dealer, its not normal, take it to another dealer.

in my case, i have a 2008 uplander, had the same problem, no heat at idel. and it was determined to be the coolant lines going to the heater core were mis routed.

have them check that.

 

Princej what is the name of your dealer and their phone number so my dealer can call them and hear it from the horses mouth. I just spent 35 minutes driving around with Bob, the service manager at Viking GMC in Rochester MN. I showed him how the temp drops when you have to slow down or stop. I tried to tell him everything I read on here but he didn't seem to think any of those were the cause. He said it is a poor design and was going to call other dealers to see what if anything they knew could be causing this. The van warmed up for 10 minutes and then we drove it on frontage roads with speeds around 30-45 MPH. I tried to explain to him that I drive in school zones where it is stop and go and slow. My heat in my van should not have to depend heavily on how fast the car is going. If I end up broken down on the road in MN we will freeze to death because my van will only heat if I am driving over 30 mph. I am ready to junk this 6 yr old van that has 73000 miles on it that GM engineered and now tell me if sucks because it is a poor design. Nice of GM to put the burden of their screw up on my shoulders.

 

I had it serviced at SeaWay in Cornwall, Ontario.

there was only 1 tech there who knew what to look for. hes seen the problem before.

 

I purchased this van from my Dad's estate in 2009 to keep a part of him in our lives.

Bad decision.

First air conditioning went out, after spending 1000+ it was "fixed". Still not proper.

Next, the heat would not perform at idle. This started when I tried to used the heat after my Dad's passing in August 2009.

I purchased a new blower resistor, nothing. Bled the system...yeah!!!!! worked while it was warm out.

Now, sold the 3rd vehicle, so have to rely on the Venture...No heat at idle, and a new present...no blower! It should be noted too that when no heat at idle, there was NEVER any heat to the rear.

This is really disappointing. My Dad worked at GM for 36 years, never called in sick ONE day in his career. He would be so ashamed, I'm so ashamed.

I guess we will try:
1. New head gaskets at dealership. 500+
2. Shorten hoses/remove kinks? 200+
3. Take my children to ER for frostbite. Priceless...
4. Bleed vehicle (already done). Home - husband Ford tech
5. Replace blower motor resistor (already done - have to do again). Home - husband Ford tech - parts 45.

GM not recalling the vehicle for this issue is abhorrent. Maybe a post on change.org would push this through????

Disgusted with frozen children in Michigan.

 

dealing with GM is very upsetting.

honest to g-d , you can really say they do not give a crap.

to them we are useless , as we are not buying a new vehicle. they already made there money from us.

I have told GM head office that i will never buy another GM product ever again, and i swear, i got this as reply , "Oh well"

 

Small question? Is the heat problem at idle only related to the extended van? i never had this issue with my 2009 Uplander short wheelbase .

 

Yes, I agree GM does not care. I called them and they said they would call the dealership and get back to me in 24 hours. That was 2 days ago and have heard nothing from GM or dealership. I am tempted to contact the attorney general of my state since this is a safety issue and the current resolution of a pump(at least what my dealer tells me) is incredibly expensive. It appears GM acknowledges their screw up enough to have created an accessory pump, but want to make money off of it. Makes you wonder if they intentionally engineered it to suck so they could make money off of fixing it. Whatever is wrong with this heating system needs to be recalled. My dealership wants to fix it, but says he can't find anything broken to fix. My van is an LT (the longer one). I will never buy a GM product again. I had a 2001 Chevy Malibu that needed a whole new engine at 74000 miles because they said the 3.1 L engine was poorly designed. Luckily we caught it just before the warranty expired. I have heard the phrase, "poor design" one too many times from GM.

 

the pump is only a short term solution. its not needed. if a dealer is saying that, then they are beyond incompetent and you should go to another dealer.

and they should never offer it, its the lazy way to fix it. they should know better than to do that.

to capucine: my uplander is extended. as far as I know it can happen to both.

 

did they check the coolant lines? did they fall off there mounting? they need to be changed and shortened if necessary.

 

I have been told they have checked the lines, made sure there were no leaks or ways air was getting into the system. Whether this is true or not I do not know. I am not a mechanic. I have started to doubt what they tell me after I have brought it in and picked it up several times and been told each time it is "better" when in fact their idea of "better" means it is not as crappy as when I brought it in. The last time I brought it in they did nothing except try to convince me it was working "normal". When I pointed out that it was dropping temp when we slowed down I was told it was normal and we were having unusually cold temps and the cabin is quite large and will take longer to heat. GM still has not called me back like they promised they would do. I was contacted from someone with a similar problem and was told there was no fix to this problem. Their dealer contacted GM's engineers and subsequently their dealership got them into a different vehicle, not another Uplander. Not really what I wanted to hear after just sinking $800 into new tires on the thing and $200 in warranty deductibles to fix other things wrong with it and another $200 to renew license tabs. I don't really want to start this BS all over again at another dealership.