Picked up my new Stag. A few questions

[Geoff H]

I collected my new Stag today, LHD TV8 carmine red fitted with 4 speed auto and BMW diff. I have driven 250 miles to see the family before taking it back to France on Monday. I do have a few questions and I am sure I will have many more in the the weeks to come.

I could not get the heater to work, I tried all combinations of the slide controls and the pull switch but nothing but cold air. Does anybody have any suggestions where to look first?

There was no jack with the car so the previous owner very kindly gave me a trolley jack so that I would have something for the trip home. Obviously this is too big for a permenent solution so is there a specific sort of jack I should source?

Best regards

Geoff

[iani]

Welcome, plenty of info on here about the heater valve, use the search function, not a difficult fix

Ian

[GTJones]

I collected my new Stag today, LHD TV8 carmine red fitted with 4 speed auto and BMW diff. I have driven 250 miles to see the family before taking it back to France on Monday. I do have a few questions and I am sure I will have many more in the the weeks to come.

I could not get the heater to work, I tried all combinations of the slide controls and the pull switch but nothing but cold air. Does anybody have any suggestions where to look first?

There was no jack with the car so the previous owner very kindly gave me a trolley jack so that I would have something for the trip home. Obviously this is too big for a permenent solution so is there a specific sort of jack I should source?

Best regards

Geoff

Hi Geoff

Before you remove the heater valve check that the Cable clip is in place and the linkages - this is a green clip on the side of the heater box next to the heater valve (80.10.05). you can see it from the passenger side if yours is LHD.

heater.JPG

[martin]

Hiya Geoff, welcome to the forum, if the clip Ian mentions is missing, make certain you get the correct replacement, it looks identical to the choke cable clips, but it's green, and has an essential small detent. The standard Stag jack, is a scissor type, flat topped with a hole to fit one of the four jacking pegs under the sills. They are available, there may even be a spare one on here that someone will part with. Enjoy the car. Martin.

[TonyC]

Hi Geoff, welcome the forum, I'm near Beaumesnil which is not very far from where you are, I have the same problem as you have with the heater, but mine has air con, so I think it's unfortunately more complicated to repair and that's why for the moment I left it as it is and keep some single malt in the glove box to get a little warmer when it's really too cold .

Cheers

Tony

[Guest]

There is another green clip in behind the heater controls. This anchors the outer sheath of the cable at the central console end. My heater valve was stuck and the outer sheath at the central console end was frayed useless. It was rather nippy inside the car as I came off the ferry in the early morning on the delivery trip. That's when I discovered the heater did not work. As someone said, the archives will have the info to fix the valve, including my questions and the relevant answers. It was easy to fix and can be done without draining the system, with only a little water to catch in the footwell. Getting at the control clip means taking the central console off and scratching your right hand til it bleeds! I followed what it said in the book and it all came to bits Ok, but the cable sheath was too damaged to hold the clip, so I just anchored the cable to the nearest screw and it all now works fine. I have since bought a new cable, but can't face doing all that again, unless my "temp" fix fails.

I have had my car a year now and I have yet to get to the end of the "to do" list!

My car did have a jack on delivery - but no wheel brace to work it - and the spare was flat! And 3 of the 4 jack locating pins were missing. That was after a £700 service 3 days before (paid for by the PO). I was blissfully unaware of all this on the 500 mile delivery trip.

[Geoff H]

I think the problem is the same as Don's. The cable "pulls" i.e. turns the valve from hot to cold but does not push, if I hold the cable in place then it works in both ways. The cable is fixed at the top with the green clip but I suspect it is not fixed at the controller end. I have put the valve in the hot position for the trip to France. It looks like I will have to take the central console out.
Again thanks for the help
Geoff

[Andrew S]

Hi Geoff, I have just fixed mine yesterday and all is working well. As mentioned, there is a green clip that fixes the outer cable for the heater cable and only accessible from behind the dash and not the consol. If you put your head under where the heater valve is, can you see the outer cable moving at all, bending at all? If so, then your problem is the clip. If so, I dropped my dashboard forward, removed the speedo and with a long arm, refixed the clip. I found that as the heater valve was stiff to turn, it had caused the heater outer cable to strip part of its casing which in turn, allowed the green clip to come off. I recut the end of the cable and refitted and all works well.

Out of interest, the reason why the valve was stiff was not due to the valve, but the retaining clamp that holds the valve in place and it was gripping the back of the heater flange. Now it turns with one finger.

A pain, but a satisfying job done and I appreciate the heater even more now

Good luck
Andrew

[Geoff H]

Hi Andrew, yes the problem is the same, the cable is bending when you push the control to hot. How easy is it to drop the dashboard forward? As mine is LHD I probably won't need to remove the speedo

Geoff

[Andrew S]

Hi Geoff. This is good news as you dont need to remove the consol, which is a real pain. Lower the steerin column so its away as far as it can be from the dash. Undo the 4 screws holding the wood in place after pull off any knobs such as hazard light switch of dimmer knob. Pull the wood towards you and slowing tipping over so that its laying on top of the steering column shroud. To do this, you will need to disconnect the speedo cable and possible an earth wire for the dials. I removed the speedo as when you put your arm through to reach the heater cable switch, the speedo really digs into your arm. Its so easy to take out and believe me, it makes all the difference. You then can see the heater clip and at to what is going on. Its a pain to do, but it will cost you nothing to fix. Well, that's what gave me the incentive to do it.

[martin]

Just a thought Andrew, if the cables on a LHD car are in the same place as ours, can you still get at them that way ? Martin.

[Andrew S]

Martin, you are so right, of course, I was forgetting it was a left hooker. In that case, its a very easy job if under the glove box or at the worse, you just need to remove the glove box.

Good thinking

[martin]

Martin, you are so right, of course, I was forgetting it was a left hooker. In that case, its a very easy job if under the glove box or at the worse, you just need to remove the glove box.

Good thinking

Perhaps the parcel shelf as well. I was right ? can we have that in the diary ? Martin.

[Andrew S]

Martin, you are always right.............