Heater - (or lack of heat)

T

typhoon

New Member
Since I have had my car I've not been able to get any heat out of the ventilation system. Well, there was this one time it did produce heat, but it was not needed so I adjusted the levers and made it go away.
Now, I have adjusted the heater box linkages, so this leads me to believe I have a blocked heater core, as the heater core on teh P6's has coolant flow constantly?
Any other reasons, incorrectly fitted heater hoses at the water pump, some special cooling system bleed trick not in the ROM?

Regards, Andrew.
 
it could be a collapsed heater feed pipe or return hose,take them off,check or replace,flush the whole system and back flush the heater rad. the best way to get all the air out is to jack up the front as high as you can. replacement of the matrix is a pig of a job!!! if ever you see a p6 in a scrappy with no engine,grab the heater box for a couple of quid :p
 
Make sure you have the heater hoses fitted correctly, they should cross between the engine and the heater, in other words the pipe that comes from the manifold, (the top one on the engine) goes to the bottom connection on the heater, then the return from the heater comes out of the top heater connection and goes to the bottom on the engine which is the pipe that runs back under the inlet manifold.
As pilkie says try back flushing the heater rad first, preferrably with a steam cleaner, make sure the controls are actually moving the flaps (the levers can turn on the shafts) then if not fit a new matrix, and refit the levers. (OK when you've done a few)
 
On our V8 I reversed the inlet & outlet pipes to the heater & ran it like that. It has the same effect as backflushing (though you can stick a mains hose on first to flush it) & it coaxed a fair bit more heat out of her. The matrix is leaking now though so I've got to remove it. The V8 pipes are both flexible enough to do this, not sure about the 4-pots without looking.
 
Thanks for all teh info guys. I had a good lok at the heater on the weekend and went to backflush it with a garden hose, however, it has the ORIGINAL heater hoses on it! I undid a hose clamp and started to pry the hose back, and it was cracking and crumbling like a biscuit! I also tried bleeding the coling system to no effect.
So, I'll pull the heater box out when the engine comes out later this year. I am doing the 5 speed swap, and the valley cover is leaking oil and crankcase gases, so I may as well pull the engine to do all that. Plus if the valley cover is off, a new cam and lifters may as well go in! :laugh:
If I have a 5 speed, I may as well change the cam and take advantage of the higher rpms these engines like.

Regards, Andrew.
 
While i was trying to tidy up the bulkhead, i removed the heater.
The heater unit itself looked rather rusty, mainly from sitting on foam that was obviously wet, so i thought it would be nice to dismantle it, refurbish, and reassemble.
The manuals remain silent on this matter so i guess that this is not something recommended.

However, after removing a zillion screws and blind rivets i managed to remove a few panels but it doesn't look like it is possible to completely dismantle the unit. So, has anyone else gone this route before? Any useful tips on this?
 
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