mk1 vtr no heating

[jasc1988]

just got the car last weekend...

fan kicks in but no heat?

any idea's?
and how to resolve :y:

[jasc1988]

anyone?

[slicksimon]

As in the heater in the car. The matrix might be blocked. Try taking the heater pipes off and flush all the crap out with a jet wash. Do it several times each end and you should see crap coloured water come out. Do it till it's clear water.

[jasc1988]

how do i access that then bud? from the engine bay?

[jasc1988]

how do i access that then bud? from the engine bay?

and yeah the in car heater :y:

[Icey_Furio]

It's an arsehole to get to. There are two rubber hoses going into the bulkhead behind the inlet manifold. You've got next to no room to get to them unless you remove the inlet, but it is do able.
Simple way to tell if they're blocked is to get it running hot and put the heater on. Then feel both the rubber pipes, they should both be hot. If one is much colder, it's blocked.

Otherwise check all other pipes are getting hot, especially after the thermostat (is it getting upto temp on the gauge?). Any hoses that are cold usually tell you where the problem is. If it's got air locks in the cooling system or is low on coolant, it'll affect the heater. Likewise if the head gasket is blown.

[jasc1988]

yeah thermostat gets upto the middle of the heat guage... definately no head gasket problems...

and air locks?
how do you get / get rid of these?

so basically get it hot and check the pipes...

if ones cold... drain the system? pop the pipes off the heater matrix and blast it with water?

[Icey_Furio]

Flushing the matrix through doesn't always unblock it, it jsut moves everything around. if it's lightly blocked, then yeah it should do some good. You could always try a rad flush in it.
If there were/are air locks, the system needs bleeding. I'd be tempted to flush it and do this anyway TBH, it's cheap and easy. Just make sure you bleed it properly....a big enough air lock can cause major overheat!
Check the temp of the pipes and check the rad for cool spots. The only way to remove the matrix (as far as I know) is to remove the dash, which isn't hard but it is time consuming and you really can't be arsed with that I'm sure.

[jasc1988]

how do you bleed the system then?

and where is the draining point?
on the rad?

[Icey_Furio]

Drain point on bottom corner of rad (or just pull bottom hose off)

Bleed point on thermostat housing, and one at back of engine near engine mount on O/S. Looks like a valve cap. If your rad has one too, do that first, then the stat one, then the rear one. If you fill it with the engine off and blow through the rad and keep topping it up until it spurts out, you know you can start it and finish it off with the engine.
Remember to set the heater to hot too.

[jasc1988]

thanking you very much shall try this saturday :D

hopefully it alleviates my problem