Date: Fri, 14 Jan 2000 01:54:00 GMT From: donnellynopsamabay.rr.com (Buddy Donnelly) Subject: Re: a saab 900S with Heat problems in Montana HELP
Recently, christelnopsamnet (Christel) wrote: > > Today on recommendation of many gentlemen from alt.autos.saab I tore > my driver speaker out to see if the rod was still connected. To my > regret I have to say that it was stll connected and the dial for the > temp seems to be working fine. No, you should be happy, because a broken rod isn't much fun to replace. > Even after I turned the valve with my > hands there was no heat comming out of my rosters. Bummer. The tubing > that goes to the point where the rod attaches to are both warm to the > touch but still no warm airflow in the car. > > Can it be the heater itself that is broke? And how can I repair that. > I guess I tried all the "simple" solutions. Now it is time for the > drastic mearure of tearing down the dashboard???? First, check to see if the heater core is clogged. You can do this from inside the enginer compartment, with the hood up, by removing the heater hoses from the IN and OUT pipes. If you can't locate two flex heater hoses going through the firewall, one on top of the other, just to the passenger side of the brake boost, the big black drum. The heater hoses are held on with either spring hose clamps or screw-type hose clamps, so just loosen them until they slide easily back on the hoses, then pull the hoses loose. Mark them so you remember which connected to which connector. With the heater level control dial to full HOT, you want to blow through the top pipe and check that you can generate flow coming out of the bottom pipe. Another piece of heater hose and good strong lungs can handle this well enough to verify that your core or water valve isn't blocked solid. If you suspect the valve, sometimes you can carefully fish a piece of steel wire, like coat hanger wire, in through the top connector towards the valve, with the valve in FULL HOT position, and gently feel for crunchy or semi-solid encrustation. If it feels like you've dislodged something, blow through it again and see if you now have flow. Be careful, because you don't want the wire going in far enough to reach the core and perforating it. Alternately, if you're not getting any flow at all, try blowing through the bottom connector and watching for liquid backflowing out the top one. It's even possible to use a garden hose to generate even more pressure, but you would want to be very thoughtful and careful while you're doing that, so as not to blow out any weak flex hoses under the dash, or even the heater core itself. If you get *any* flow, I'd just replace the heater hoses and try running the car for a while, and see if normal operation keeps it fairly clean and hot. The big worry is that you may have major clogging caused by heavy use of Bars Leak or another radiator additive, which may dislodge and open up old leaks in the heater core that the Bars Leak was used to stop. If I lived in Montana, I'd find a bullet to bite and replace the core once it shows *any* sign of leakage into the car's interior, either as dripping or as window fogging. -- Good luck, Buddy Buddy Donnelly donnellynopsamabay.rr.com
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