where's the heat?

[Kneale Brownson]

Have you checked that your heater valve (in the water line between the 
block and the heater core) opens?  OEM heater valve is plastic and may be 
partially plugged so that the ball valve won't open all the way.  It's also 
possible some PO tried to fix a radiator leak with a leak-plugger 
(BarrsLeak, etc.), and has gummed up your heater core.  I'm getting enough 
heat from three Audis currently being driven (4Kq, 200q20v and V8) that I 
can travel anything over 1/2 an hour in shirtsleeves and we've had outdoors 
temps in the single digits F.   None of the coolant temp/oil temp gauges 
indicate anything much over the group of lines on the low end of the gauge 
unless sitting idling in traffic.


At 12:02 PM 12/23/2000 -0500, jos1 at cornell.edu wrote:

>A question for those of you who BTDT:
>
>How do you get enough heat in an Audi?
>
>My '89 100Q is now on its third thermostat, the swaps having been done
>because of the suspicion that the (previous) thermostats were not
>closing -- the operating temperature, according to the temp gauge,
>stayed at the 2nd or 3rd notch of the gauge in the kind of temps we're
>experiencing here currently -- about 10-15 degrees F. Of course the
>heater produced only a a whisper of tepid air, just as it does now. In
>the past, mo Ovlov produced HEAT within the first 5 minutes of driving.
>Obviously, swapping thermostats has made not one bit of difference.
>
>What's going on?  Is there an Audi secret I shold be privvy to?
>
>TIA for all tips, and happy holidays.
>
>jos
>