Inane heater controls

[aways]

The owner's manual sucks regarding the heating system.
The manual for my 1987 Carrera says NOTHING about the two
levers between the seats which I believe actually turn on the heat.
Also, my automatic heating control knob between the seats has
only two or three positions, not the 9 positions given in the manual.
Does anyone else have just three positions for this control?

[theFONZ]

Does everyone elses defroster suck? Mine barely has any flow behind it, and takes forever to defrost the window. Also the center vents always have air going through them when I am going down the highway. Is this all normal?

[86 911]

My defroster has barley any blow behind it also. I guess that by the time that the air has gone from the engine, through the frame, through the blower, and through the interior vent, most of the air has been lost.

Matt

[Beethoven]

There is an indenpendent blower motor in the trunk just under the windshield, it should blow loud and strong, and you use it for defogging. These motors fail, so if you don't hear it, it's probably dead.
You defrost by pulling up the two levers in the middle, and direct the airflow upwards on the lowest of the three lever in the dash.
If you can't figure it out from the manual, come and live in Chicago in January, you'll get it in no time...

[unclebilly]

Originally posted by Beethoven
These motors fail, so if you don't hear it, it's probably dead.

Or the hose to it from the heat exchangers isn't connected properly...

[Beethoven]

Now I'm confused--the front blower is connected to the heat exchangers?

[theFONZ]

I hear the blower when I want fresh air on max but not on defrost. Is this the same blower?

[randywebb]

The 'front' blower in the trunk only moves fresh air. They are talking about a blower hung from the bottom of the rear package shelf above the engine and in the engine comp. But I'm not sure that your car had it. My '75 did not until a PO added one.

Over time the ventilation for heat went like this:
Original up until mid to late 70's -- air moved by fan on engine; no aux. blower motors.
?? - aux. blower added in engine comp.
1984? - twin addl. blowers added in front kick panel areas by driver's and passenger's feet.

And, yes, the HVAC sucks on these cars - they are air cooled -- PAG never promised anything about heating.
It's only a true sports car if you have to suffer.

Man you guys are great! I was wondering that myself. Now I know! Thanks!
Joe

Originally posted by djmcmath
These images were posted in another thread. Since my search-fu is weak, I'll just repost them (sorry Wayne). If it's any consolation, I've owned my car for over a year, and the heating system still makes little or no sense to me. Mostly I just pull randomly on levers until I get what I want. Nutty.










Enjoy,

Dan

[Steve87-911]

Originally posted by aways
The owner's manual sucks regarding the heating system.
The manual for my 1987 Carrera says NOTHING about the two
levers between the seats which I believe actually turn on the heat.
Also, my automatic heating control knob between the seats has
only two or three positions, not the 9 positions given in the manual.
Does anyone else have just three positions for this control?

Agreed. The manal sucks wrt the levers. In fact, Porsche AG forewarned us about the heater and the manual, albeit by implication. Just read the first sentence under the Heating and Ventilation section on page 36 (87 manual). I quote, "Your Porsche's flow-through system provides draft-free ventilation while driving". Thus implying that there will be no air circulating (drafting) about the cabin. I personally like a draft when I want to feel air. In fact I think a draft is a critical element of ventilation. Otherwise we are talking about motionless air.
That sentence also provides a preview of more subtleties in language that we are about to witness in that manual.

Ventilation solution?

a. Smash face against windshield to feel air...but only after cranking up the dash-mounted fresh air fan controls so high that the fan's noise drowns out the wind noise sneaking thru the targa top.
b. open the window.
c. take off the roof.

Now for that pesky heater. I'm sure this topic comes up every year but we gotta vent (no pun).

masraum and Frank got it figured out I think. Still, for those of us infrequent heater users, it can be confusing. Attend:

Automatic (crapomatic) Heating Control.

Postion 0 is really zero! Ya!
Postion 1 is...er, still zero!!! WTF?
Postion 2...now something's happening...there's a slight hint of heat coming outta somewhere.
Position 3/defrost-icon...wow...still a hint of heat somewhere.

VW-type levers in the front of the crapomatic:

Pull the right-side lever...wow...there be heat here! And a fan is blowin' in the engine compartment. Cool! I mean, hot! Now make sure that the red lever on the dash is set to the right so last night's beer breath starts to evaporate from the windshield.
Now that left VW lever...I can only guess it does more of the same as the right one...but the right one has a nice lighted label that says Defrost, however, I still get the feeling that the left lever might also defrost if I set that red dash lever correctly. I need to experiment more but usually once I get the defroster going, I ain't messin' with anything unless I need to turn it off.

So this all has me wondering. Why are there 3 defrost icons in the vicinity of the crapomatic? Why make this so confusing? Well, I can tell you why, by metaphor. A company I used to work for used to sell some real convoluted and illogically designed software. It was just too complex for anyone to configure and use. No one in the world would buy it...except one large company...from Germany. Seems our German friends like confusing stuff. God bless 'm. Yes, I love to hate my heater controls. But, no matter what, I love this car more than any material thing I've ever owned.

[masraum]

Originally posted by aways
The owner's manual sucks regarding the heating system.
The manual for my 1987 Carrera says NOTHING about the two
levers between the seats which I believe actually turn on the heat.
Also, my automatic heating control knob between the seats has
only two or three positions, not the 9 positions given in the manual.
Does anyone else have just three positions for this control?

THat's because you don't have automatic heating. If you only have a rotary switch that's marked 0,1,2,3 then you have manual heat, and the switch is supposed to control the footwell blower fans' speed. 0 and 1 are low, 2 is medium, and 3 is high.

With automatic heat you don't get the levers because the automatic part controls the valves that the levers control. Weird, the manual in my '88 explained all.

With the manual heat. The levers turn on the blower with a small contact as soon as they are pulled up just a bit, and the amount that you open them is the amount the valves are opened back at the heat exchangers. So, pull them up a little for a little heat or a lot for a lot of heat. To have the fans blow really hard (assuming you have footwell blowers) turn it to 3, to have them not blow so hard turn the knob to 1.

There's one lever on the dash that has anything to do with heat, and I believe it has a red knob (red for heat) and at each end of the slide it has an arrow pointing up or down. With the slider slid to the end with the arrow pointing up the heat will go to the windshield, with it slid to the end with the arrow pointing down it'll go to the floor.

[masraum]

Originally posted by Beethoven
Now I'm confused--the front blower is connected to the heat exchangers?

Yes and no. THe front blower isn't really for the heat, but because it is connected to the same set of pipes it will help give more volume of flow to the heat. You can have the freshair and heat blowing at the same time. The heat doesn't come out quite as hot, but it does come out faster.

[masraum]

Originally posted by Steve87-911

....
Ventilation solution?

a. Smash face against windshield to feel air...but only after cranking up the dash-mounted fresh air fan controls so high that the fan's noise drowns out the wind noise sneaking thru the targa top.
b. open the window.
c. take off the roof.

Now for that pesky heater. I'm sure this topic comes up every year but we gotta vent (no pun).

masraum and Frank got it figured out I think. Still, for those of us infrequent heater users, it can be confusing. Attend:

Automatic (crapomatic) Heating Control.

Postion 0 is really zero! Ya!
Postion 1 is...er, still zero!!! WTF?
Postion 2...now something's happening...there's a slight hint of heat coming outta somewhere.
Position 3/defrost-icon...wow...still a hint of heat somewhere.

VW-type levers in the front of the crapomatic:

Pull the right-side lever...wow...there be heat here! And a fan is blowin' in the engine compartment. Cool! I mean, hot! Now make sure that the red lever on the dash is set to the right so last night's beer breath starts to evaporate from the windshield.
Now that left VW lever...I can only guess it does more of the same as the right one...but the right one has a nice lighted label that says Defrost, however, I still get the feeling that the left lever might also defrost if I set that red dash lever correctly. I need to experiment more but usually once I get the defroster going, I ain't messin' with anything unless I need to turn it off.

Great post, funny.

Just in case...

The two red levers for the NOT automatic heat (if you have levers you don't have automatic heat. The automatic heat is a mechanism that automatically controls the valves for you, so you get no levers. OK, there's a small contact at the levers. IF everything is working correctly, pulling either lever up a quarter or half an inch you should engage the rear blower and the footwell blowers. How much you pull up the levers controls how much hot air you get in the cabin. Pull them up a little, you get a little, I think you got the rest. In a car with the 0-3 knob, I found that the knob was the same in position 0 or 1, and that should have the fans blowing a little, position 2 should have them blowing more, and position 3 should have them blowing pretty strongly and making lots of noise. Where they blow is a function of the red lever. Up or down, but a little comes out of the vents at either end of the dash. If the air isn't that hot then run the car up to redline, that'll do it.

Anyone with a 3.2L carrera, you have 3 heater blowers, one fresh air blower, and if you have AC you have a blower for that. Chances are unless your car is very low miles and these fans haven't been used much that they are going bad. Mine all went bad between 120 and 135k miles, and I think my relay started failing which is back in the engine compartment, and is just over $100 if I remember correctly.

Personally I think back dating is the way to go if you can get your footwell blower fans to work afterwards.

[SpeedracerIndy]

Originally posted by masraum
Great post, funny.

Just in case...

The two red levers for the NOT automatic heat (if you have levers you don't have automatic heat. The automatic heat is a mechanism that automatically controls the valves for you, so you get no levers.

Just to complicate things further... My 81 has auto heat AND it also has ONE lever. The auto heat mechanism is connected to the lever by a metal arm that is bolted to the red heat lever. All of the Carreras I have seen with auto heat have no levers as you described. The switch to NO levers must have been in 84? for the Carreras.

[masraum]

Excellent, thanks for the correction.

[Steve87-911]

Interesting how Aways' and my '87 owner manuals only cover the automatic heater controls with no mention of the between-the-seats VW-like levers I mentioned. Hmmm. Any other 87 owners have the same issue with the owner's manual?

[86 911]

You guys are lucky that you have an owners manual. Can anyone show me where the wire connects from the fresh air blower switch to the blower? Mine seems to be very loose and can be easily moved, which means that it has no connection somewhere.

Matt

[tdatk]

This is all much eaiser with the back dated heat setup. If you want heat, pull the 2 levers between the seats up and drive it like you stole it then open the windows cause it's too hot. Or .if you need your front window defrosted you pull the window defrost knob on the dash, IF your lucky enough to have the majic wires in the windshield. ; )

Tim

[john baldwin]

Mine has two knobs on the top slider of the dash control; the left one for the fresh air supply and the right one for the fresh air blower. When I slide the left knob to the right to open the fresh air vent, it doesn't stop in the center as the one on my '80 SC did, but instead can slide all the way to the right with the the fresh air blower knob...is there a cable stop missing or is this normal for this model year? Anyone?

[HarryD]

I am glad my '73 is not so complicated.... (thx randy...)


Q: I just bought a Pooschey 911 and can't figure out how to make the heater work -- or the fresh air either. Can you help me?

A: Sure, I can help you. The ventilation system requires that you operate 4 levers to make it work. 3 of the levers are on the dash, and the other is between the seats on newer Pooscheys there are 2 levers between the seats).

The top lever on the dash actually does several different things (remember, it is a fiendish German device, just like the rest of the car). Pushing it to the middle opens the dust ports leading to the windshield (see below for operation of fogging machine and oil mist spray device). Pushing it to the
right past the middle also activates the rattling noise-maker device. There are three loudness levels to choose from. Pushing the lever all the way to the left is used to jam the cable so unauthorized personnel cannot operate
any of the devices above. The lever also enables the automatic heat exchanger signalling device -- when opening it spews rust particles on the windshield, you should replace the heat exchangers. Also, if opening it causes you to immediately turn blue or purple (not just hair, but skin
color) and become unconscious, you (or your estate) should definitely replace the heat exchangers.

The second lever from the top controls the lights on the White House Xmas tree. Move it to the middle to turn on the lights, and all the way to the right to fire 4500 Megatons of Nukes at Iraq.

The bottom lever on the dash is used to replace the windshield when it becomes scratched or pitted with rock chips. It also determines how much hot air goes to your feet as opposed to your head. For example, let's say the engine is completely warmed up and the hot air is burning your feet. If it's a cold day, you can flip the lever to the other side and shoot hot air onto the windshield so it cracks and shatters. Then call your insurance company (you do have insurance, don't you?)

The lever between the seats controls the oil mist spray device. When the engine is warmed up, this lever allows you to blow oil mist into the passenger cabin. Using the top dash lever lets you select whether you want the oil mist to coat the inside of the windshield or to just circulate around your feet. On a newer Pooschey, you have 2 levers on the floor
between the seats. The left hand lever lets you open the left side vents which are aimed so they burn the feet of the person in the right hand seat, and the right hand lever lets you open the right side vents which are aimed so they burn the feet of the person in the left hand seat. Of course, each
lever will also burn just the tops of the feet of the person in the other seat. If you are driving in the rain (or even stopped in the rain after the car has broken down), these levers also let you spray a fog of water vapor on the windshield, so no one can see in or out of the car -- sort of like privacy glass.