My truck threw a p0401 code, so I popped the hood and was going to take a look at the EGR and the modulator, and while I was looking at them I noticed that this eyelet looking thing wasn't connected to anything. What is it, and does it belong on the valve post near it? Thanks.
It's the cable that moves the lever on the heater valve. A common problem is when it's connected the heater valve is cracked open a bit allowing hot coolant to flow to the heater core when it's not needed. The fix is to adjust the cable.
That's your heat control cable. See that black plastic thing with the arrow on it just above? On the bottom side of it, you can see the lever that eyelet attaches to, you can even see the bare metal where it was previously attached. It opens and closes the valve.
Thanks. More dumb questions: The heater works fine. I suspect this hasn't been connected in some time (It would be an incredible coincidence that it happened to become disconnected today). Soooooo, why's everything work okay if this isn't connected?
Have you tried changing the heat temp control slider? That's what the other end of the cable connects to. Basically, it's stuck in that position now that it's disconnected, although the slider in the cab will go back and forth. You can manually move the lever on the valve to adjust it, of course. Hard to do tooling along at 70, what with needing to open the hood and all, so pick your heat before you hit the street...
