Car heater's banjaxed

wet-paint

A good while back, I asked the mother to get the heater looked at during the car's service. The fan worked perfectly, but it'd barely generate any heat, which was annoying in the cold weather. She did, and the mechanic looked at it.
Now, the fan works fine, but no matter what setting you put the temp dial at, is still pumps out roasting air. Not so much of a problem if I'm by myself in the car, but if there's more than two of us in the car, or if there's a load in the car at all, it gets warm, and starts pouring roasting hot air all over me, which as you can imagine, is a killer when going long distances in the sunny weather. Planning on driving to England with four lads and four boats on the roofrack with a week's worth of stuff in the boot, so that'd be murder on us. I'm told by a friend that's a solenoid gone in the heater, but I'm not too offay with the internals of a car. Is this easy enough to fix myself, or am I better off getting the car back out to the mechanic?

Undercoverguy

Three things i reckon it could be:

1) The dial is broken
2) The machanic done a lazy job and instead of fitting a new selector just connected the hot tube permently.
3) HEAD GASKET :O

Dont forget most cars heaters run directly off the engines tempature, normally using the radiator or similar as a heat source,if you have a faulty gasket this is normally one of the first signs as well as unsmooth running and petrol drinking.... So dont be afraid if ya hear this mentioned.

More than lightly it aint the gasket/head tho, prob something small but get it to a machanic either way tho dude if not for the heater just for a general check up before your england adventure.

crosstownk

Most cars have a cable which connects the temperature dial to the flap in the heater box that regulates warm air. My guess is it's either broken or disconnected and the flap is stuck on warm. Heater boxes on some cars are pain to work on due to the inaccessability of the components.

Go easy on the curries and beer the night before that journey otherwise with the heat in the car you'll be driving a mobile stink bomb

mike65

Almost certainly a flap controler is disconnected

Mike.

wet-paint

Oh wow, that sounds like it could be it, as I got one of the boys to put in a new headunit, and he could have disconnected it when doing so. Cheers for the advice lads. I'm glad it's not anything like a blown head gasket or anything.