My heatings not working...

[Alex_225]

Since buying my 1993 Clio RT I noticed that the heating was taking an age to warm up.
Even after 20 minutes it still wasn't warming up much and the water temp gauge didn't move much.

Well now, its not warming up at all. I did a two hour drive the other day and the blowers were only pushing out cold air the whole time!


Any ideas what this could be?? Is it likely to be an expensive fix???

 

[Josh@Renparts]

Heater matrix is blocked, you can try flushing it but it won't make a great deal of difference... Takes ages to change one from what ive heard..

 

[Alex_225]

Oh joy!!!! I really don't wanna spend out on it at the moment considering I'm looking to chop it in, in the new year.

Car cost me £600, clutch £300 and steering column £300. Can't justify however much it'd cost to replace the heater matrix.

Ar$e and indeed bugger! lol

 

[steve172sport]

Oh joy!!!! I really don't wanna spend out on it at the moment considering I'm looking to chop it in, in the new year.

Car cost me £600, clutch £300 and steering column £300. Can't justify however much it'd cost to replace the heater matrix.

Ar$e and indeed bugger! lol

steering column £300 i got one 4 £20 had same prob with my old car with the heating sell it in the summer best bet lol

 

[SBV116]

Yep, its dash out im afraid!!!

 

[Josh@Renparts]

i would probably never recommend a mk1 as a second car. as after a few months of repairs your usually into mk2 ph1 territory.

 

[172.com]

Heater was bad in my '91 RT. I was told it was the heater matrix and that he'd seen that problem before. IIRC he told me not to bother with it if I could live with it.

 

[Mark One]

I dont think there is much to go wrong with the Mk1s, i think there ok. They certinally rattle less in my experience!

Why has no-one considered the thermostat?

If your thermostat is gone it will normally jam open and flow the coolant to the radiator from cold. So unless your in traffic on a warm day your unlikely to see any heat at all. A thermostat is about £12 tops with gaskets and if you have a haynes and some torx keys it's a dead quick job.

 

[Clarkie172]

my laguna is doing the same! How do u test the thermostat?

 

[MT AUDIO]

take it out and put it in a jug of cold water,then put it in hot water and see if it opens

 

[ditz]

coolant system faults cant be diagnosed like this it could be a number of problems.. wont be the thermostat as the heater circuit dosn't run through it (so the heater warms up quicker)
sorry to be obvious but is there any water in the header tank?
if there isn't (or even if there is for that matter) fill it up and try bleeding it through the bleed screw that i think is located on the heater pipe untill you get water out.

 

[Mark One]

take it out and put it in a jug of cold water,then put it in hot water and see if it opens

when he says hot, he means pretty freakin hot. Something like 70 degrees i think.

I still think it could be thermostat.

I'm on my 2nd engine in my valver, BOTH have needed a thermostat change. The thermostat stays open (flowing coolant round the rad) meaning the whole cooling system (incl the engine) stays too cool. The temp gauge doesent come up very far at all and the heaters will be crap at best.
If your getting one, make sure you get gaskets with it as some come without em

If the coolant system isnt bled properly, that's bad bad news as the air thats in there will not cool your engine, so check that also.

 

[MT AUDIO]

yep i should have made that clear,boiling hot water is best just make sure the container wont melt,my mistake first time round.lol

 

[Alex_225]

Cheers for the advice guys, to be honest I'm gonna pop down my local garage who tend to do little jobs like that for the price of the parts.

If they've got a thermostat I'll give that a try.