Yeah!!!! (Long with Audi content)

[Kneale Brownson]

--
Under the black rain diverter there are two heater core pipes (in & out)
sticking out of the side of the heater core/blower box.  That's where your
heater valve hose ends up.  Held in place with a hose clamp.  You have to
take off the wiper blade arm to get the rain diverter free.


At 08:22 AM 04/09/2002 -0400, Beatty, Robert wrote:

>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!)
--