Rover 45 K series heater not hot: now hot (fixed)

[dieselnutjob]

Some friends of mine have a very nice Rover 45.  It's about 2003 I think.

The heater blows but only blows cold air.

I checked the coolant level and it's correct.

I checked that the engine warms up and it does.

 

Anyone know what this is likely to be?

[dollywobbler]

An airlock is a possibility - and a scary one on a K-Series...

[dieselnutjob]

do they have bleed screws like French chod?

[bub2006]

My l plate 414. I bled system,changed coolant,checked heater matrix and couldn't find anything wrong. Head gasket went about 150 mile later

[Vince70]

As Dollywobbler has said it sounds like an airlock but being a K series prepare for the worst.

 

But I had the same thing on my old cabriolet and it was a massive airlock, I found a valve going into the matrix but I did have to bleed the system more than once to get it working and it ended up taking near a couple of litres of antifreeze/water

 

It didn't help not having a working Temperature gauge either on the 400 mile drive home from collecting but it didn't do the car any harm once it was sorted and has never given me any problems since and that was well over a year ago and it's never overheated now I've fitting a new gauge and temp sensor.

 

Also I've done the attach the hose thing on the heater matrix on past cars which has worked a treat if blocked.

 

Last time I did it on an old car I back flushed it as it was bad and I don't know if it made any difference but I poured a bit of neat antifreeze into the matrix then cleaned it out again as so much rust/crud came out and antifreeze is meant to have a rust inhibitor in it but I really don't know if it helped to clean it out.

 

But Fingers and toes crossed it isn't the typical K series head gasket fubar.

[dieselnutjob]

 I bled system

 

how?

[bub2006]

If I remember right as it was 4 years ago I let it run with expansion bottle cap off. Can't honestly remember if there was any bleed valve but I never really looked

[Barry Cade]

OK- bleed screw on metal pipe above gearbox, 8mm bolt head- can be hard to find, bleed from here first whilst filling up the expansion tank, then again once warm. Check for a bleed screw on the top of the rad, some have 'em, some dont..Make sure the heater valve is working as they sometimes dont,-easy to see as they are on the bulkhead with the cable going to them, and then just massage all the hoses while warming up to make sure water is circulating- can take a bit of time and paitience, but worth spending the time doing it. You will know when it's bled properly as you should get a constant flow of coolant from the small pipe into the expansion tank

[Station]

There's nothing wrong with having the heater matrix having air in it - it's what's caused it that's the problem. If it's exhaust gas sitting in there ... I've always had permanent results from K-seal.

Bleeding should be fine, also leaving all caps off and taking the car for a ruddy good spin (literally) in Asda carpark which lets all the fluid go backwards/forwards/sideways until the air pocket is forced out.

 

Watch out when doing the bleed screw on the top of the gearbox - it's about 1 inch from the distributor and you will get an electric shock.

[saucedoctor]

Nah, you'll be grand on a 45. No Dizzy.

+1111 on what Tiff says.

[fordperv]

If that doesn't work someone's used too much k seal and blocked the heater matrix.

 

Only kidding, everything constructive I could think of has been said

[dieselnutjob]

I found the problem

The heater control knob pulls/pushes a cable, which has an eyelet at the other end under the heater controls.

This eyelet is not connected to anything.

Above it is a rotating plate which has two rods sticking out of it.  The eyelet appears to be intended to fit on the longer (and I think thinner) of the two but there is nothing to retain it on that rod.

So I guess that there is a clip or something missing.

If anyone has time to take a photo of how that cable eyelet attaches to the rotating plate it would be useful.

Thanks

[tooSavvy]

I found the problem

The heater control knob pulls/pushes a cable, which has an eyelet at the other end under the heater controls.

This eyelet is not connected to anything.

Above it is a rotating plate which has two rods sticking out of it.  The eyelet appears to be intended to fit on the longer (and I think thinner) of the two but there is nothing to retain it on that rod.

So I guess that there is a clip or something missing.

If anyone has time to take a photo of how that cable eyelet attaches to the rotating plate it would be useful.

Thanks

 

SKODA Estelle ALERT ***

 

My Rapid had the cable [bowden cable, think its called] controlling the air flap snap. I bought one of those 'Pick Up spring loaded - bits you dropped' widgets, from poundland (or equiv in those days...) and just cut it up for the piano wire. Re threaded the wire, with a 90deg bend at the bottom end, and sorted  !!

 

All the bits were there, though, so a bit easier to work out what went where....

 

tooSavvy

[srad34]

Glad you found the problem and it was not the HG.......

[Barry Cade]

There's no clip on them, they just locate on the peg- seen this a few times before, need to be very free to stop the and valve binding, which causes them to pop off. At least you can have heat if you work it manually in the mean time!

[brickwall]

For me this was head gasket.  No surprises....

[dieselnutjob]

 

+

 

 

=

 

 

I have been tearing around West London in this thing today and I must say I'm quite impressed.  It has a sporty feeling and all the toys and leather as well.  The view out is lovely (great visibility and nice a low dash).  For a 1.4 it's quite lively.

 

Negatives

 

The accelerator peddle is mysteriously long throw.

Easy to stall.

Idle shakes the whole car.  The diagnostics are complaining about a failed camshaft sensor so that could be why.

[dieselnutjob]

also

 

was the passenger airbag installed in the factory by a bloke with a powersaw, a hammer and some nonails glue?

[saucedoctor]

Cam sensor should be part number YSB002390. If you're having problems tracking one down, PM me the car's reg or chassis number and I'll get you the part number for the individual car (if the one I've quoted is wrong)

[dieselnutjob]

I also bought a later model coolant expansion tank for it.  One with a level sensor.  I will just wire it into the brake reservoir warning circuit.

[Station]

Oh that's good. The one on the MGF was fairly stiff feeling, they're crap on these. I think everything connected with the heating/cooling system is crap.