Yeah!!!! (Long with Audi content)

[Beatty, Robert]

or How I fixed a broken heater control valve with a flatblade screwdriver, a
razor knive, and a 19mm combo wrench

hehe :)

Over the past few days noticing im starting to loose coolant, when I was
driving in town the temps would climb.  Ment to put water in and find the
leak but was in a hurry on Sun and forgot to. (Oops!)  Driving home from
work yesturday afternoon when it started happening again, so I pulled into a
gas station to fill up water and find the leak.  Open the hood and water is
leaking from the back of head.  From the blasted heater control valve, which
some genius in Audi had made out of plastic instead of metal.  It had
separated into 2 halves, so I tried to push it back together to see if it
would hold till I got home.  Nope.  Sigh.  Ok what tools do I have.  Gas
station guys say they have nothing!  Great.  Open the hatch and look in the
spare tire well.  Hey cool!  I did leave the tool kit in.  So now I have a
flat blade screwdriver, a razor knife I had in there and a 19mm wrench I
found under the drivers seat (Hmmm wondered where that was :) ).  I also had
a small fish tank in the back with the various plastic piping for the
filter.  I figuring I could just splice that in and take out the valve until
I got it home.  Go up to the front of the car and loosen the left side hose
clamp for the valve.  Comes off nice and easy.  Go to loosen the right side
clamp and it wont budge.  At ALL!  Crap!  So now what?  I pull on the slack
of hose coming out of the firewall from the heater core.  Hmmm, I think it
will reach, esp if this aquarium piece can be spliced in.  Ok, I slice off
the offending clamp and other half of the valve as close as I can to the
end.  I try to test fit the aquarium piece in, nope its too big no way its
gonna fit.  NUTS!  So now I'm 25 miles from home, really really REALLY dont
want to spend the $$$ for a tow and I have no way to get any parts or better
tools.  Looking at the left half of the broken heater control valve I see
the stem the hose connects to is about 2" long from the tip to the base.
Hmmmm, if I could just break off this stem from the base I could piece it
together.

(Here is where I get really creative)

Taking the screwdriver and using the 19mm wrench as a hammer, I punch holes
all around the base of the stem and break it free from the rest of the
valve.  Clean up the edges and VIOLA! I have a splice now!  Ok, now I need
another hose clamp because one of the 2 was stubborn and wouldnt come off.
Hmmmm.  Lets take a look around the car.  Nope, none in the spare parts
stuff in the back.  Looking under the hood, thinking what doesn't have alot
of pressure and can take a cruise home with no clamp?  The ISV valve!  Its
only some vaccuum/air pressure in low amounts.  I pulled off one of the
clamps and put the splice in place.  Filled up the radiator and things
looked good.  Drove home and had no problems with temp.

Spoke with dad about the valve to confirm what I thought it was for and I
was right.  It controls hot water flowing to the heater core and is normally
open except when running the AC.  Hmmm, well I can let it sit till at least
the weekend and I should be able to do something more then.

Driving to work this morning.... Temps are high.  Uh-oh.  Maybe my splice
broke or loosened up?  Look under the hood.  Nope!  Damn!  When I cut one of
the wire ties holding the 2 heater core hoses together, I must have nicked
the hose.  Its now leaking about 3" from the splice!  Grrrrrr.  Thinking,
well I have a full jug of water and theres gas stations on the way.  I fill
up and get to work.  I'll go out this afternoon and completely take the
heater core out of the circuit. That should keep me running till I can get
parts and stuff.

Sooooo, now that I have related how good I feel about my side of the road
repair. :)  I need to know something.  Anyone know if the heater core hoses
are easy to remove from the car WITHOUT pulling the blower assembly out?  I
have BTDT before and have NO desire to do it again if I dont have to.

Thanks for any help and for reading my ramblings :)

Rob
86 5ktq (almost alive!)
89 200tqa (almost dead!)
94 Hyndai Excel (prolly will never die!)