Broken heating?

[mjb]

I've got an interesting issue with my heating at the moment (funnily enough my house has also been without heating for 1.5 weeks, but that's another sob story...).

Basically I can't get any hot air to come out of the vents without using recirc and setting the fan speed manually. With these conditions set, the temperature control works as expected.

Pressing 'auto' will cause lukewarm air to slowly come out of the vents regardless of how high I set the temperature (unless I have the temperature set low, in which case the aircon does its stuff and I freeze to death). Even if it's 5c outside and I set it to 30c with a hot engine, it'll still only use a slow fan speed.

Any ideas? It's a pain in the backside as first thing of a morning I have to drive with recirc, aircon (to stop steaming up) and a deafeningly high fan speed just to get almost warm. I've also noticed the coolant temperature is only climbing to around 80c in the first hour of driving (mixed motorway/traffic jams). Coolant's been topped up and bled.

[Welly]

The heating output is varied according to a 'flap' over the heater matrix maybe this has stopped working and is 'covering' the heater?

Your thermostat could be stuck open and not letting the the coolant reach it's full temp, consequently the Climate ECU will hold off the fan speed thinking the coolant is not ready yet.

I would go for the later and you could carry out a simple test by blocking the rad with cardbaord and doing a little run. Your coolant temp will rise and you may find that the climate controls work as they should. You can then say for sure that the coolant has not been hot enough.

What's up with your house heating?

[mjb]

I'll give that a try. Dunno when I'll be able to do a short run with a cold engine though :/

Actually, if I start the car in the morning and the radiator gets warmer quicker than say the top of the engine then that'd indicate the same would it not?


As for the house heating... Eurgh. It's always been crap, with the pump doing 3am impressions of a chainsaw and regular spells of it being cold upstairs despite bleeding, but now it's constant chainsawism (accompanied by what sounds like a waterfall when i turn it off) and no heating anywhere.

Called the landlady who said she'd call "the plumber".
A day later the hot tap in the bath decides it won't turn off (at all) so I have no water or heating at all (since the only stop-tap I could find to kill the bath tap turned off *everything*)
Called the landlady saying "I've taken the day off work because I've got no water or heat"
A day later I call the landlady
A day later the landlady texts me saying she's spoken to the plumber, who'll call me
A day later the plumber calls me, says he won't come out before 4pm so I'll have to wait until the weekend. "Sometime, I can't say when. Just make sure you're home when I come"
The weekend comes. The plumber fixes the bath tap and tries replacing the (working) fuse to the timer. I have to persuade him the fact that it WORKS means there's no problem with the timer. He listens to the chainsaw pump and changes the fuse again. I manage to convince him it's not the problem and he suggests it might be the pump. He says "I'm going to have to get a new pump and get back to you"

I'm still waiting... In a freezing cold, wet, house

On top of this, the landlady's just put the rent up again.

ARGH!

That's why I've not been around much recently... It's too cold (under 9 degrees) to sit upstairs on the computer

[Welly]

If it's a Grundfoss pump you can take the head off with allen keys and give the impellor/housing a good clean up and this will free up the motor.

Make sure you shut off the pump valves either side first, and the power. The head seals to the pump body with an O ring.

Of course the motor/bearings could just be worn out in which case it needs replacing (5minute job and the plumber will pay about £35.00 for the pump )

[Welly]

If it's a Grundfoss pump you can take the head off with allen keys and give the impellor/housing a good clean up and this can free up the motor.

Make sure you shut off the pump valves either side first, and the power. The head seals to the pump body with an O ring.

Of course the motor/bearings could just be worn out in which case it needs replacing (5minute job and the plumber will pay about £35.00 for the pump )

[TooT]

Called the landlady who said she'd call "the plumber".
A day later the hot tap in the bath decides it won't turn off (at all) so I have no water or heating at all (since the only stop-tap I could find to kill the bath tap turned off *everything*)
Called the landlady saying "I've taken the day off work because I've got no water or heat"
A day later I call the landlady
A day later the landlady texts me saying she's spoken to the plumber, who'll call me
A day later the plumber calls me, says he won't come out before 4pm so I'll have to wait until the weekend. "Sometime, I can't say when. Just make sure you're home when I come"
The weekend comes. The plumber fixes the bath tap and tries replacing the (working) fuse to the timer. I have to persuade him the fact that it WORKS means there's no problem with the timer. He listens to the chainsaw pump and changes the fuse again. I manage to convince him it's not the problem and he suggests it might be the pump. He says "I'm going to have to get a new pump and get back to you"

I'm still waiting... In a freezing cold, wet, house

On top of this, the landlady's just put the rent up again.

ARGH!

Reminds me of the days when i used to rent a house. My landord was just a useless and my rent went up £100 over the 3 years i was there. (thats 100 a month not a year)

[mjb]

Reminds me of the days when i used to rent a house. My landord was just a useless and my rent went up £100 over the 3 years i was there. (thats 100 a month not a year)

Aye, mine's gone up every year for the 4 years I've been here. Bastards.

Still, with the new job I'm starting soon I'll be looking to buy a house ASAP... No more bloody landlords! No more horrendous wallpaper, dodgy fixings, dodgy plumbing, dodgy electrics...