945 Niggles

[Joe of Loath]

Nope, no AC on this one, so the valve is on the inside.

[Laird Scooby]

Originally Posted by Joe of Loath

Nope, no AC on this one, so the valve is on the inside.

Sorry to say the heater control valve is on the engine side of the bulkhead as are the connections to the heater matrix

[bluebrickrick]

Have to disagree Dave, I think it may vary both with ac / non ac and age, both my Wentworth (ac) and the current driver (non ac), K and J reg respectively both have manual cable operated water valves and both are drivers side the bulkhead so Joe, it may well be this causing your problem.

First off, until you sort it, turn off the heat control on the dash before finishing a journey as I found this reduced the leakage. Likewise vent pressure in the water header tank after it has cooled a bit.

Take the three torqs screws out underneath the dash and steering and slide the covering panel back to drivers seat - the engine side end slies in a couple of channels, be prepared for phone or alarm wiring to fall out on you as they can be tucked in here sometimes.

Kneel by the driving seat, bend into foetal position then twist upper body anti clockwise and look above the clutch at the bulkhead, and toward the centre of the bulkhead, you should be able to make out the valve and pipes to heater core etc. The manual valve you should be able to make out the plastic lever with a bit of bowden cable to it from the back of the console, I've no experience with the vacuum servo in later ac models.

You can cramp the pipes either side of the valve (you should see crud like kettle scale and wet indicating where the leak is) with a small mole grip it cuts off flow. You can remove the valve and put a bit of pipe instead of it - full heat all the time but by partly cramping the pipe in the engine bay you can get some demist effect. Finding a replacement valve is getting hard and watch out as the ones from abroad on ebay are for LH drive cars and are a mirror part.

Check your antifreeze as last night low here in Norfolk was enough to take a heater or rad core out.....

HTH

Been there, done both core and valve at this time of year.

If it is a weep, I grate a bar of cheap green handsoap dissolve in a bottle of hot water until a slime then add that to the water header, old fashioned cure for old fashioned cooling systems I put in about 250ml at a time and when hot it tends to clag up amall weeps, it hasn't killed my engines but can't say what it might do to yours, we have used it in tractors for years

[bluebrickrick]

Dave, thanks for the seatbelt indicator info, never having had a seat out its not clear where it is or how you get to it - done the switches in the harness before now, presumably the same switch as the seat heater circuit uses ?

Just got round to trying to fix my back washer jet pump, s@ds law neither of Father Jacks worked so took the original and managed figure out the series of plastic darts holding it together and get it apart without damage - they obviously do not like standing idle ! Having excavated the crud and worked some oil in I got both motion and powered rotation so after a good clean and lube it runs again trouble was when I'd got it back on it was so cold I couldn't tell if the pipe to the back had frozen (it had no screenwash anti freeze so far) or the nozzle is gummed up.

Will not have much time to spend on it tomorrow so Friday will bring what it will bring, what sort of idiot buys a car, (even a no brain cheap one in an emergency) that has its MOT in this sort of weather - I ask ya !

Rick, in concerned about what he has missed mode.........

[Laird Scooby]

In that case i sit corrected on the heater control valve - no way am i standing this early in the day!

That said, every heater control valve i've ever seen has been engine-side of the bulkhead and i haven't had a heater assembly out so wouldn't have seen an internal control valve.

As for the "occupancy switch" on the seat, as far as i know the seat belt warning uses the same switch as the heated seat which means i have a different intermittent fault on my drivers seat. That said Volvos do turn the seat heaters off when ambient is above a certain level and "ambient" is determined by a thermo-switch under the seat on a lot of them.

Don't panic on the rear wash/wipe - it's currently not tested and hasn't been for several years. Same goes for reversing lights oddly. There seems to be a group of items that are periodically added and removed to the test on the whim of some kind of government gnome who decides on the flip of a coin and whether a cat washes behind its ears or not.

[Joe of Loath]

The FAQ mentions that AC are engine side, non AC are passenger side, so that's what I was going off. Sounds like it's more complicated than that.

Thank for the info, will take a look this weekend and see if I can find the source of the leak. Hopefully it's recent and it's not been sat rusting all winter for years. Also thanks for the tip on the foreign valves, I was eyeing up a £30 one from Germany but sounds like it won't fit.

I've heard that it's a clone of some Ford parts, so if I pull it out I'll take a look online and see if I can find a replacement. That's assuming it's not just a leaky pipe or joint.

Will not have much time to spend on it tomorrow so Friday will bring what it will bring, what sort of idiot buys a car, (even a no brain cheap one in an emergency) that has its MOT in this sort of weather - I ask ya !

Tell me about it...

[Laird Scooby]

See my reply to the 740 test drive - clutch thread about it deserving the GLE badge about Ford bits - somehow i managed to reply to two threads with one answer!

If it is the heater control valve, you can either bypass it completely using a 16mm PVC hose joiner available either from your local factors or :

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/16mm-Plast...IAAOSw8oFXza5c

or use some 15mm domestic copper pipe and isolation valve :

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Plum...alve+CP/p36879

If you're feeling posh and don't want to have to use a screwdriver to shut the heater off/turn it on, go expensive with one of these instead :

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Plum...l+Valve/p14624

I would think the easiest place to fit it would be under the bonnet in the upper of the two hoses that go to the heater matrix as that should be the flow with the return being the lower of the two hoses on the matrix.

Hopefully between what Rick and i have said you'll find a solution, whether it's the valve or the matrix - Radweld, soap and even the white of a raw egg can be used to seal relatively small leaks in the matrix, one or other of those valve ideas should get you going leak-free as well.

Good luck with it and let us know how you get on!

[Joe of Loath]

Originally Posted by Laird Scooby

If you're feeling posh and don't want to have to use a screwdriver to shut the heater off/turn it on, go expensive with one of these instead :

http://www.toolstation.com/shop/Plum...l+Valve/p14624

I love it. If I can't find a valve that's exactly what it needs!

Also all these threads are getting confusing. I should start my own thread. Maybe after the MOT Monday when I know what else needs fixing.

[Laird Scooby]

It's a cheap, easy to find alternative to get you out of a spot - no more, no less. You could leave it there permanently and extend the OE cable and fit a spring return to counteract the cable if you wanted or just use it as is or as a stop-gap until you find the right one for your car.

[bluebrickrick]

You on Monday Joe ?

I'm hoping to not spoil the pass trend started by Dave the other day as mine is due in tomorrow complete with fixed numberplate lightbulb and the new rear numberplate fitted - I got an advisory last year on the other car as the plate had de laminated and got a dirty mark down it - I did ask what that had to do with road safety but my tester didn't bite

Let you know tomorrow what I missed...........

Oh if it is the near the left foot valve Joe, I had to make an extended 10mm (IIRC) socket due to long threads on the engine side.