heater problem (good timing)

[longman 0]

hello all, this morning as it was nice and frosty my heater was working fine on the windscreen, i changed the direction down to the feet and then back but something happened and all i get now when it is on the windscreen is a whistle-ing, it works fine on all other settings apart from feet/screen. anyone know what to do and what it may be, i think either a a cable has come off or one of the tubes?? urgent

[longman 0]

found the problem, the cogs under the heater had come off and one is broken does anyone know if anyone has got any spares???

[dr_mat 0]

Spares? nope. everyone has broken ones. You'll be a very lucky man if you find a replacement control panel with unbroken internals at a breakers. New panels are hideously expensive from VW.

There is hope, however. Kevhaywire posted up a write-up on how to adapt the panel from a passat to fit and work in the corrado. They should be easier to come by at the scrappies than genuine corrado ones.

Have a search for it.

Meanwhile, grab the cables, adjust it so it points at the screen and you can at least demist when you need to, so your car will be *safe*..

[Henny 0]

dr_mat it's an early one! Different broken bit... :roll: :lol:

 

Longman, there's a couple of people breaking G60s in the for sale section, they should have the bits you need on theirs as yours will have the same earlier mechanism (2 slide controls rather than 3 turning dials) which don't tend to break as often... 8)

[longman 0]

i think mine has 2 dials and one lever?

[Henny 0]

i think mine has 2 dials and one lever?

 

:shock: It's a 91 16v? it should have a turning knob for the fan speed and 2 levers, top one sets where the air is blown to, bottom one sets the temperature... The later dash had 3 large turning dials, fan speed, direction and temp. It's these later ones that tend to fail as the cogs get jammed up... The earlier (like the MKI and II Golf) ones hardly ever break... :?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

found the problem, the cogs under the heater had come off and one is broken does anyone know if anyone has got any spares???

 

Do you mean the heater distribution box itself or the heater control panel? I don't think the early slider control panels used cogs?

 

If you're talking about the heater box then you have to buy the whole heater distribution box from VW at £150+ as you can't buy the cogs/levers seperately. Or you can traul round a scrappy.

 

Mike Edwards has a spare heater box though.......

 

Kev

[SatinRacer 0]

And who tipped you off as to the problem??? :D

 

Now we know what you are doing all day! :lol: Working indeed!

[Bolster 0]

I think the cogs on my heater dist box appear to be misalligned as the cable arm does not have full travel (detached cable from recently repaired controls as this was the root cause for my busted controls)

 

- can the cogs be removed and replaced or is it more likely that there is something stuck in the box? Is removal/replacement of the box fairly straight forward or does the whole dash have to come off?

[longman 0]

it does have a dial and 2 levers, but i wasnt going on about those.

it has 2 cogs and 1 lever under the heater unit

[Henny 0]

it does have a dial and 2 levers, but i wasnt going on about those.

it has 2 cogs and 1 lever under the heater unit

 

I know :wink: :D Usually it's the late controls that fail, so when people hear about heater cogs, they instantly assume it's that same fault... :roll: By clearing up that you have the 2 lever, one dial style controls, people now know that the fault is with the distribution box not the controls and you stand a better chance of getting the bits/help you need... 8)

 

I don't know enough about the heating on 'rados to help much more, but I can safely say that you'll not have too much problem getting hold of the heater routing section of the system out of a broken car which should be in good condition, as the earlier heaters don't tend to break (which was what my first reply was about! :roll: :lol: )

 

Good luck! 8)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

it does have a dial and 2 levers, but i wasnt going on about those.

it has 2 cogs and 1 lever under the heater unit

 

As I said, you have to either A) scavenge the part from a breaker, or B) source a replacement heater box.

 

Kev

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I think the cogs on my heater dist box appear to be misalligned as the cable arm does not have full travel (detached cable from recently repaired controls as this was the root cause for my busted controls)

 

- can the cogs be removed and replaced or is it more likely that there is something stuck in the box? Is removal/replacement of the box fairly straight forward or does the whole dash have to come off?

 

Common problem, the cogs can jump teeth very easily if there is a problem with the cable. You can realign the lever though to restore the flap's correct travel. There's a proper way of doing it and a bodgey way of doing it. Guess which is easier?

 

Proper way:- Seperate the front half of the heater box by undoing the 10mm plastic retainers. Quite tricky as the console is in the way. Once you have enough of a gap to stick your hand inside the heater box, you need to remove the lever's retaining clip with either a small socket or some pliers. It's in the middle of the lever, so fiddly to get at.

Once the retainer is free, push the lever down and out.

 

Bodgey way:- Just lever the fecker off from with a screwdriver! But you do run the risk of completely breaking it. Run the heaters at full pelt for a while to soften the plastic first.

 

Now, you need to figure out the movement of the flaps in relation to the control dial and reset the lever accordingly by reinserting it back in it's hole on the heater box, in it's correct position. It will take a few attempts to get right.

 

It's bloody hard to explain but have a gander at my sticky thread in common probs and hopefully it might help. You will figure it out once you're down there though.

 

Kev

[Bolster 0]

I'm a sucker for a good bodge!

 

Thanks Kev

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I'm a sucker for a good bodge!

 

Thanks Kev

 

LOL, me too! Hope it all gets sorted. It's taken me 4 attempts to get my heater right, and so far, touch wood, the flaps have been fault free for 3 months now.

 

Couple of other things I forgot to mention.....be careful of the cable retainer clips on the heater box as the plastic is sh1te and will break easily if you're heavy handed....rendering the heater box useless!

 

Secondly, before changing heater direction, drop the fan speed down to 1 as the flaps seem to disagree with the pressure exerted on them on speeds 3 and 4.

 

Kev