HEATER CONTROL VALVE.

[Moraystag]

Gent's heater control valve stuck on Sunday while on my way to Scone Palace show.

Cable jumped out of the retaining clip, the one you can't get to unless you remove radio, centre consol etc a real bitch to get back on. Heater control's all working correctly now although I have disconnected the heater valve and plan to remove thistomorrow.

My question is this, how much water should I expect to come out, if I don't drain the cooling system. Have only covered 1000miles and 9 monthssince coolant was last changed,:????

[aerosilver]

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When I did mine last year I was all prepared with towels and a container but only a small dribble came out.

Cheers,

Bob.

[jleyton]

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And on mine I did a temporary fix which, I'm rather embarrassed to say, seems to have become permanent.

My valveoperates ok but I guess it had siezed at some stage in the past as the retaining clipdoesn't retain very well any more :?. I'd like to replace the clip but you are quite right tosay "the retaining clip, the one you can't get to unless you remove radio, centre consol etc a real bitch to get back on"

Anyway, where the cable runs there is a screw into the right hand side of theheater unit with a large washer. I loosened this and ran the cable under the washer then retightened it. Together with a semi working clip, it'sheld the outercable ok for ages and has saved me the hassle of replacingit fornow.

Cheers

Julian

[brian0443]

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jleyton wrote:

as the retaining clipdoesn't retain very well any more :?. I'd like to replace the clip but you are quite right tosay "the retaining clip, the one you can't get to unless you remove radio, centre consol etc a real bitch to get back on".

The proper clips were not available for some time and one large supplier sold the choke cable retaining clips as suitable. They are simply not strong enough. You should be using green ones with a little dimple to grab the cable.

Guess where you can get the proper ones? Doesn't make it any easier to fit the one you have had problems with.

http://www.ldparts.co.uk/shop/shop.p...ccf8bebe471db6

Usual disclaimers. Others may now have them too.

Brian

[Moraystag]

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Brian the green one is still in place it was the one further up and clipped in under the control box. A real bugger to get it clipped back in had to undo the two screws under the dashthat hold the control box to the heater unit it's self to get some room to get my sausages in

[brian0443]

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Good man. I think both should be the green type, which are stronger and have the little dimple to really grab the cable. But if you have won the battle to get the clip in again I would leave it there and hope it stays.

Brian

[Moraystag]

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Brian I sincerely hope it stays as it was one bugger of a job, could'nt believe the design and there were more than a few fruity oaths as you would imagine mate
Brian whats your thoughts on the amount of water that may or may not come out.
Bob only seemed to get a little but I have been told that you can get quite a sustantial amount. New carpets and footwells in so don't want to flood the old beast out



Mike

[jleyton]

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Mike,

Just thinking out loud (and ready to be told I'm wrong by others maybe) but I would have thought it could be worthwhile disconnecting the two heater hoses under the bonnet first. At least that way you will only have the water in the heater unit to contend with and nothing more will feed in from underbonnet.

In fact, if you've got a 'wet type' vacuum, you could disconnect the hoses and suck all of the coolant out of the heater if you're worried about it.

Just a thought

Cheers and good luck.

Julian

[brian0443]

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Mike

I did as Julian suggested, butmyvalve was seized solid andI eventually had to take the whole heater out. Silicone grease is recommended for reassembly. Motor factors were offering it by the kilo but I got a small tube in Maplins.

Brian

[nib]

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The amount of water coming out should be avery minimal quantity and if your cooling system is working fine and you normally leave your expansion bottle at half full it should be a case of topping up again after youve been for a run and its cooled,preferbly next morning.Dont forget to top upthrough the rad with thepressure cap unscrewed untill youve got halfway up in the expansion tank and then quickly tighten the pressure cap to avoid going over halfway after this carry on filling to the start of the thread where the rad cap screws into and I normally thengive the top hose a squeeze to expel any air after this put the rad cap back on.

When taking the heater valve out I would remove your footwell carpet and put plenty of dry rags over the carpet on the gearbox tunnel underneath the heater valve as antifreeze takes ages to evaporate.

Mark

[peter f]

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Also don't forget not to overtighten the radiator brass nut, as it is easy to fracture the rad neck at that point.
FWIW
Peter f

[Moraystag]

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All completed guys and now runs and works as it shouldbit of a fiddle but well worth it,thanks for all your posts guys

[MissMoppet]

Well . . . in my case, about half the overflow bottle. Much more than expected. It's a bugger. I slid out the valve by gripping the tiny screw, revaselined it but lining up the eccentric cut out was bloomin' tricky. The cable was gripped OK at the valve end so had to take out radio and enclosure and found that the outer cable had come adrift from the green clip which was still in position (you can see the top prongs of it). I managed to push out the clip, slid the cable back and eventually persuaded the clip to slot back. I have the blood to prove it. It now works because the valve slips round freely. Seems daft to repair the heater on the hottest day of the year, but there ye go.