minimal to no heat from my 16v, HELP!!

Re: minimal to no heat from my 16v, HELP!! (88GLI97B4wagon)

If your temp gauge is operating normally, then check your heater control valve. I just replaced mine ($10). They get all crapped up, then the cable gets harder and harder to move, then the clamp that holds the cable fails and you can't turn it on and off anymore.
Edit: It may be that not enough water is moving through to do much good, too. I would still start with the heater valve. Have you flushed the cooling system? There is some purple stuff ("Purple Power?") people have used to flush everything out that supposed to work real well.


[Modified by VWhombre, 9:44 PM 2-6-2002]

Re: minimal to no heat from my 16v, HELP!! (88GLI97B4wagon)

I'd bet that your heater core is toast. There is a plastic liner inside the heater core that is supposed to slow down the coolant for better heat transfer. After many miles the plastic gets soft and collapses so coolant doesn't flow.
I agree that you should start with the control valve since it's cheap, but I'm betting that it's the heater core.
Good Luck,

Re: minimal to no heat from my 16v, HELP!! (beetlevdubn)

What temp. thermostat do you have? I had the cooler one in (80 deg. C I think) but when winter came around the engine wouldn't heat up (less than halfway on the temp gauge). I wasn't getting much heat out of the vents either. I changed back to the stock thermostat and everything is back to normal.