Re: heater valves

[Kneale Brownson <knotnook@traverse.com>]

Could it be you need new heater cores because they're partially plugged?  I
have to turn the heaters down in all my Audis, even when driving at or near
0 degrees F.  The heater core is just like any other radiator with lots of
tiny tubing to let off heat into the air passing over it, and it doesn't
take much build-up of mineral deposits to reduce significantly its heat
dissipation abilities, I would think.

Kneale Brownson



At 10:50 PM 12/13/99 -0500, David Ritter wrote:
>Huw Powell writes:
>
> > [As I look into this piece, with the valve shut, there is no aperture. 
> > there is a reddish piece of plastic across the middle of the approx. 1
> > cm dia pipe.  As the valve is opened a tiny hole appears and moves
> > across the edge of the pipes circumference, widening as it goes.  It is
> > followed by a 2 more slightly larger holes doing the same thing one
> > after the other, and then finally the final edge of this complex baffle
> > piece comes into view - and at the end of the operating levers stroke, a
> > piece of this baffle still blocks about 1/6-1/4 of the pipes cross
> > sectional area.]
> > 
> > or skip the wordiness - when its 100% open, it ain't!
> > 
> > As someone with inadequate heat I have to wonder why this is.  Anyone
> > know?
> > 
>
>BTST, hacked it, didn't help...
>
>What I mean to say is, I found the same thing on a new heater valve,
>got out a dremel and went to work on it. I managed to avoid destroying 
>the silly thing and I still don't get enough heat. I know that I
>increased the flow, but it didn't do anything noticable.
>I'm guessing that what I really need to do is to tear down the
>ventilation system next summer and fix all the leaky seals and
>such. While I'm at it, I think I'll try hacking the fresh air to the
>center vents thing to reduce the cold coming in there too.
>Next summer is still a long way off though.
>
>David