RE: heating woes

[Aleksander Mierzwa <alex@matrix.com.pl>]

With the engine running and at operating temperature, alternate between
"LO" and "HI" on the A/C control panel. You should see the control arm
at the heater valve move. If it doesn't move, try to move it by hand. If
it moves freely and you get warm air out of the vents while you keep the
valve open, that's most likely a vacuum leak.

Aleksander Mierzwa
Warsaw, Poland
mailto:alex@matrix.com.pl
87 Audi 5000CS turbo (mine)
88 Renault Medallion wagon (mom's)
91 mountain bike (just in case both cars broke at the same time :-)

> -----Original Message-----
> From:	Titus, Brian (NJAOST) [SMTP:BTitus@njaost.ml.com]
> Sent:	Monday, March 23, 1998 3:48 PM
> To:	quattro@coimbra.ans.net
> Subject:	heating woes
> 
> This morning my 885ksq (with automatic climate control) would not
> deliver
> heat to the vents. Fan is blowing like crazy trying to make the
> requested
> temperature, but only cold air is coming out of the vents. I believe
> the
> system thinks it's calling for heat, because the air is not blowing
> out of
> the dash (A/C) vents. Anyway, I checked the archive, and found many
> references to failed heater control valves. I took a quick look at
> mine and
> it seems intact; also the coolant in the expansion tank is at the
> right
> level, so it doesn't seem as though there has been a major leak;
> engine temp
> guage reads normal. Do the control valves tend to only fail
> catastrophically, or do they simply go bad (get stuck), or does this
> sound
> like something else (vacuum leak, bad heater core, etc)?
> Unfortunately, I'm
> at work right now, so I can't really go out and test anything... :-(
> 
> Brian
> 885ksq, 106K miles