Club 80-90 Forums

Afternoon All,

Whilst driving round sunny Jersey in the fun bus over the weekend the temperature in the Syncro was much warmer than outside. Was not looking too cool driving around whilst sweating one out!! For some reason the heater has started blowing out hot air even though the fan switch is off and the controls set to cold. it doesn't seem to matter where I position the controls the same flow of hot air comes from the vents.

I've looked at the wiki site and before I rip out the dash (looks frightening!) hunting for the problem has anyone suffered a similar issue and did you have an easy fix.

Cheers.

Lever has fallen off heater valve. It's only a little self-tapping screw into plastic. Or else the end of the cable has come off. Drop clamshell/bashplate and slide under the front looking forward & up, above fan. You'll need a headtorch!

I have the same problem compounded by a broken n/s 'leccy' window motor, in a panel van !!!!

I'm not up to dropping the bash plate at the mo so I've gaffa taped the inlet grille.........'temporarily'!!!!!

Thanks silver bullet. I'll have a look at the next available opportunity.

PS I have heard tell that the valves can fracture inside, meaning that the controls work and all looks well, but the valve is actually kaput.

Valve was replaced on mine yesterday, problem solved. The old valve let water through whether it was on or off and was also the cause of very slow coolant loss.

Afternoon All,

I have had a look at the value as suggested by silver bullet. The cable is connected and the screw is tight. So I decided to go look inside the control panel. NOW it does look like the previous owner had been in here as the control panel facia came off a little too easily, missing several attachments on the back of it and had been reattached with some black silicon! I could see that the wire to the said control valve had been bent and had come out of the lever which explained why it didn't work. As there are no outward signs on the control valve I'm leaning towards thinking mine might have some internal injuries that silver bullet is speaking off. I can't move the lever on the control valve by hand but if I use a pair of long nose pliers on the control cable from in the cab I can get the valve to operate. (I have set it in the cold position which has solved the sweaty feet issue! )

So I have some more questions.

How easy is it to replace the control valve? Do you need to take out the radiator to gain access to the control valve? Can you strip down the control valve, clean and reassemble?

VWSween did you do the replacement yourself? And where did you get the new control valve from?

Thanks y'all!

Drain coolant, swap valve, refill and bleed out. I strongly advise getting a pair of proper locking pliers to remove the spring hose clamps, better safe than sorry and they make life so much easier. Brickwerks stock them.
PS the little spring clip that secures the cable outer is a fiddle. Strong fingertips help no end. Easy once you have done one or two, no way to explain it though!

My valve was replaced by a garage - had a replacement radiator at same time - the valve was less than £10 so not worth trying to repair.