Heater Inefficient

[Guest Theo205]

Never used the heater since i bought the car,but when I turned the knob to hot air tonight the air that got out of it, was slightly warmer than the air in the car and that wasnt normal since the engine was running on 80 degrees temp(4th bar)... thought it had air traped inside so i tried bleeding the system. both, the bleeding screw on the hose and the thermostat housing bleeding screw gave me pure burnin coolant. .so i thought maybe water didnt flow through the matrix so i disconnected the bottom hose connected to the matrix (not the one with the bleeding screw) and with a gardening hose forced water in the matrix.... water came out from the other end of the hose.. so i guess that means everything's normal.. i'm still cold though any suggestions? heating system diagrams?

(btw car has an aftermarket air conditioning system installed if that makes any difference)

Edited November 13, 2003 by Theo205

[Anthony 1,003]

Is your coolant level topped up? I'm pretty sure that the heater is the first thing to suffer when the coolant level drops.

 

If it's any consolation, my heater is somewhat on the lame side as well....

[Guest Theo205]

yeah the coolant is topped and also very clean...

[Pugnut 9 1 Cars]

at somepoint in the cars history the two pipes may have been swapped .

 

if the hot feed goes into the wrong pipe on the matrix then the water wont flow so well through the matrix due to hot water rising ect and creating a flow. This is an issue with a lot of cars but i'm not so sure how big a difference it makes with a 205 . worth checking though .

 

the other thing it could be is that although you are turning the knob ,the flap may have become dissconnected from it or is turning on the shaft .

 

when the engine is up to temp if you feel the bottom hose going into the matrix it should be very hot . the top hose should be slightly cooler . if this is this the case then its safe to say that a good flow of hot water is flowing through it. then i would start looking at flaps,cables and knobs .

[Guest Theo205]

well.... hoses seem to be connected properly, as they are connected in the same way on my '89 Gti(whose heater works properly). Hopefuly its a flap that wont open properly...but how will i check that? do i have to take apart those fragile french plastic panels? which is the easier way to gain access to the flaps??!

[flick 0]

same problem ... do you have to remove the whole dash

[Guest Dave]

If it makes you feel any better, once you have fixed it, the heater will be great!

The heater in my pug is soooo good its unbelieveable. On the really cold days Ill be using the pug rather than the Calibra because the Cally heater is slightly lame.

[Guest Wiggs]

The heaters on the 205 1.9GTi's are great, when they are working at least, get hotter much quicker than any other car I've used. Great in the winter. Unfortunately, my cars are both non-sunroof models and the blowers are somewhat poor when it comes to summer...

 

Slightly off topic (well opposite in fact ), but who fits after market air conditioning and what's it likely to cost?

[flick 0]

any tips on dash removal ?

[Guest tom]

yeah do it when its warm!ironic i know!if u do it when its cold you'll loose your fingers!its so bloody fiddly!

sorry not much help there

[Guest doogz]

mine was pretty naff too, and i bled the system quite a few times with no improvement. I took both hoses off and hosed some water thru until it was clear and it's been fine since. I think mine was full of crud as the water was coming out a nice shade of brown, even tho the coolant is still blue.

Edited December 17, 2003 by doogz

[Guest mike_b]

I've got the same problem, someone reccommended I try something called radflush from Halfords to clean out the matrix.

 

I'm gonna try it over the weekend. Anyone else used it before?

[Guest doogz]

I'd try hosing it out first mate, mine's now roasting hot (once the car's warmed up)

[Guest Wiggs]

I think that flushing with a hose is best to start with. If you use some of these flushing additives you may suddenly expose leaks you never knew you had!

[Guest ellisg]

I had same problem, hose on bottom pipe did the trick eventually.

It took me 30 mins of flush with hose before it all came out, try pulsing the water to get the last bits out, mine was running clean water out, pulsed it and more gunk came out.

Now I'm nice and hot :-)

[Guest SuperFLY]

mine was naff until the matrix decided to give up and dump water everywhere!

 

got a new one and OMG!! my blower is soo hot at normal temps now if i run it on full for any length of time by eyes start to sting! lol

 

and as my dial is knackered and i have it on a switch i can only have it on full! lol