It's the weekend, time to fix...

[mistahsinclair]

This week the heater gets to be the center of attention.

It would be nice to have a working heater for the cold dark mornings. Actually, it would be nice to cold light mornings too!

I had a poke around under the hood today and notice a couple of problems...

1) The vacuum line isn't connected to the heater disc valve

2) The hose out of the heater core isn't connected to ANYTHING!

.....

Ok, I went back out and had another look and think I figured it out...now need confirmation and have a new question.

The coolant goes from the top of the motor, through the disc valve and into the heater core, correct?

Out of the heater core it plumbs into the hard pipe next to the exhaust header and back along to the water pump, correct?

So, my line goes from the disc valve straight to the hard pipe to the water, basically by-passing the heater core.

Seems like I'm on the right path here...

Why was this done? leaking heater core? no desire for heat?

How does the heater core get removed? it seems like it might be close to the DME, so plumbing it up with a chance of a leak doesn't sound too clever...

Thoughts?

Cheers

Pete

[callmethewander]

sorry i can't help you, but i will be following your thread since i'm having some issues myself. I just replaced the heater disc valve and haven't seen it actuating, i was wondering about a vacuum problem myself. good luck

[mistahsinclair]

As a follow up thought, since I've been thinking, has anyone tested their heater core?

I could use a pressure tester and put a couple of pounds air pressure in it and see if it holds air.

I could also put a fresh water head on it and see if it leaks that way (might be easier and won't pee coolant all over the place if it does leak).

[mattdavis11]

I have heard of a little plastic clip that breaks near the gas peddle area (up in there somewhere) on the 85.5 and newer cars which causes full on heat, all the time. Hope that's it, and the PO bypassed the core as a fix. You won't like pulling the dash to change out the heater core.

[John_AZ]

Originally Posted by mistahsinclair

This week the heater gets to be the center of attention.
Why was this done? leaking heater core? no desire for heat?
How does the heater core get removed? it seems like it might be close to the DME, so plumbing it up with a chance of a leak doesn't sound too clever...
Pete

Greetings,
Step 1. Remove dash
Step 2. Huh?
Step 3. WT....
Step 4. Locate parts
Step 5. Recover cracked dash
Step 6.

TGIF
John_AZ

[mistahsinclair]

In reading other posts on heater core replacement there was one common word used...

PITA


Maybe I'll pull the DME out of the way and try some fresh water...

[Razorback1980]

I would use the air pressure first. If it can't hold air, it can't hold water. You could probably even connect a couple short hoses and try to blow through it. At least that will give you an idea what's going on. I agree with mattdavis11...the heater probably has a broken clip and the po bypassed it because they didn't know about that clip.

Here is a write up on that clip....

http://www.kronowit.com/porsches/944-heater-fix.html

[mistahsinclair]

Tom,

Thanks for that link...the clip wasn't broken...it was GONE!

I tried some clever tricks with balloons and a pump and determined that core is, probably, sound.

I'll buy a couple of clips and fix it once they get here.

Cheers

Pete

[hpservertech]

It's amazing that that one little clip can make a drive in the middle of winter so cold. I drove from Baltimore to St. Louis in the middle of the winter without heat cause of that little clip.