JourneyOfFrustration

Update As I drove home yesterday I began to hear a tapping sound along with what sounded like a gurgling noise. I had been monitoring the coolant temp and watched as it shot up from 230 to 260 and overheated. By good fortune I was a block from a local garage and pulled into their driveway to let it cool. The shop owner came out and I gave him the rundown of the problems I had been experiencing. He asked a few questions and determined that I did have an air pocket trapped in the coolant system and then he showed me how to remedy it. I am no mechanic, but the fix was easy to do. After I got home and let the car cool, I did as I was instructed and everything turned out great!! The heater works fine. Thank you all for the great tips. If I run into any additional problems with this car I'll definitely return to the forum for guidance.

I'm almost 100% positive I used the right part. I got it from O'Reilly's and it looks identical to the one I removed. I was thinking of flushing the radiator. Would that bleed out any air in the line?

I have a 2012 Dodge Journey R/T. I've owned it for about 2 years and have loved every minute of it until recently. I currently have no heat. Zero. NADA. The fan blows strong, the AC works fine, and I recently changed the thermostat and housing after the check engine light came on and the code indicated a faulty thermostat. When the heat first started to go out I also flushed the heater core. I'm resigned to the fact that it is most likely the heater core that has died and that I may have to eat the $1000+ repair bill, but I want to make sure I have tried everything I can before going down that path. I have dual control climate zones and have read other posts that describe losing heat on one side of the car or the other, but haven't seen anything about losing heat altogether like I am experiencing. With the recent thermostat issue I have been monitoring the coolant temp consistently for the last few weeks. Everything I have read seems to indicate that a typical running temperature is should be below 200 degree, but even with the new thermostat I consistently run at 220-230 degrees. With all that heat being produced it would be nice if I could get some of it into the cab, but nope, nothing. Somebody on here must have experienced something similar to what I am experiencing. I live in the NW and while we don't get cold winter days all that often, I'd still like to be able to stay warm while I drive and to be able to quickly defrost the windshield when I need to. Help, please.