no heat in car while idling.

[Giggz]

Guys,as above.I get no heat from in the car while i am sitting in traffic but when the car is in motion it gives heat no problem???

Please advise.

[Giggz]

No heat guys! Its winter and i got no heat.Imagine that with leathers and you getting in your car first thing in the morning!Oh god! Please sum1 help me please.I need heat!

[Adammcf]

Just a wild guess here as Ive never had it happen but you could try bleeding the cooling system or the thermostat could be knackered?

[Giggz]

Tried bleeding the system.Might have done it all wrong. I basically had the car running with heaters on full.Hose at the ready to keep water tank topped up.Opened up bled valve on thermo housing and waited for heat to come from heater but it just did not happen. Will have a gander at the thermostat. Thanks for the tip sir.

[hoshy]

sounds very much like system needs bleeding to me. When I did mine I didn't bleed from thermostat housing though I used the bleedscrew next to filler cap on radiator. Used shit loads of water too, about 7 or 8 two litre bottles. Basically just kept running water in until the water coming out of the bleed hold was a strong stream when given a few revs.

First time I tried it I thought that it hadn't worked etc but I just hadn't pumped enough water through.

[OllieB]

Valid point there, these cars are notoriously hard to bleed. I changed a water pump with the help of a good mate who was lead technician at a BMW main stealer for years. When we re-filled the coolant bottle and tried to bleed the system it took us nearly half an hour. Best tip is to park the car on a steep hill, face down....



Oh yeah, and you'll need to rev the sh*te out of it while you do it so as its nice and hot....

[Rich25i]

Hi i have just bleed the system on my 320 tourer. I undid the bleed screws
took the top heater matrix hose off (bulkhead) waited till water came out put this back on then ran the engine with the nipple and cap off. When water came out the nipple i did this up then took the breather pipe off the rad untill water streamed out. i then helped the water round by squesing all the water pipes in turn untill the water in the resivior stopped going down. this solved my no heating at idle problem. it takes about 20 min with the help of a good mate.hope this helps as i was pulling hair out for ages with this

[Rich25i]

Oh and a few revs after each pipe squeese.only to 2k

[Giggz]

Thanks for the tips guys.Noted. But still abit reluctant to try it myself though for some reason!

[hoshy]

just don't rev the balls of it and you should be ok dude.

[Giggz]

ok...no revving hard.i will try it this weekend.thanks again!

[BUG4LIFE]

I dont get no heat at all from my blowers, and my Beemer a cab!!! All the things I could do to sort that [as above], something a total novice could do - as I don't no Jack about car mechanics [but I so wanna lean]?

[Martinaston]

I take it the temperature guage works as normal on the car but your just getting cold air from the vents.

With the ignition on stick your head in the passenger foot well and turn the temperature dial slowly from hot to cold and back again and see if you can hear the heater valve opening and closing. If not it MAY be broken but more likely to be full of crud.
Have a go at bleeding it and then run it until warm with the heater dial set to the warmest setting. If you still get cold air coming through then grab hold of the hoses thet enter the passenger compartment and into the heater matrix, if one is hot and the other cold your matrix is clogged.
If it is pull the hoses off (turn the engine off first ) and rig a hose pipe up to it and let it flush through untill the water is clear, then do the same again the other way round. You will need the ignition in the on position to get the valve to open because it automatically closes when the car is off.
(confused ? i know i am, let me know if that makes sense and i'll sort it out later. got to go)

P.S. DON'T get the starter motor wet.

[BUG4LIFE]

Simple then?!? I'm gonna give it a go.

Also, I aint doing my car any damage by still using it with this potential clogging or thermostat problem?

Sorry to butt in on your thread Giggz, reckon we got the same problem though?

[Giggz]

BUG4LIFE,we sure do have the same problem and what a falaffel of a problem it is! I did not make any sense of that last helpful thread.Well i did kind of but dont know what to look for at all! I am not using the car at the moment either thank god as its getting a new coat of paint(yippee!). I have ordered thermo and housing anyway and will plug these in,bleeding the system reference to these threads. My temp gauge works fine as far as i know. Let us know how you get on BUG4LIFE.

[hoshy]

Giggz. The heater matrix is what sits behind the dash it's basically a radiator with a fan to get hot air from the hot engine coolant.

There are two pipe (feed and return) that come from the back of the engine block and run to the bulkhead. what Martin is saying is that both should be hot if not then take the pipes off and hook in a hose pipe to blast out the heater matrix, being careful not to get the starter motor wet. Probably best to get a length of unused hose to take the water out under the car or something.

I reckon your best to start with the bleeding first though cos even if the matrix is partially blocked you want to make sure there's not any air floating round the system.

Hopefully that's cleared things up a bit for you. (real thanks goes to Martin as I just paraphrase him )

[m-dtech]

i had a e34 that didnt give any heat but the switch was fucked lol

[max_crox]

IÔš've got the exactly the same problem. But the only thing with mine is the Temp gauge works but seems really low. IÔš've just been out for an hour long drive and it never got out of the blue. Ok it was really really cold out and I wasnÔš't thraping it at all but this isnÔš't normal is it? On a normal day when I drive down the motorway to work it sits at the 1/4 mark. Any ideas what the prob is?

[max_crox]

Ahhh just noticed this thread
http://www.e30zone.co.uk/modules.php?na ... ic&t=22340

I might be testing the viscous fan. Ive alwasy noticed this whooshing sound alwasy thought it was just the engine Doh!!!

[rayman]

Try back flushing the heater with a hose pipe, then reconnect fill coolant up and bleed system.

[hoshy]

rayman dude, that avatar is WAY oversized!

[rayman]

Dont know how to shrink it

[hoshy]

try this one dude

http://hoshy.co.uk/~hoshy/ray_small.jpg

[rayman]

thanhs hoshy

[Steviec]

My mate was telling me he had the same problem with his 316/318 (cant remember what it was) and apparently there is a small motor to send the water round when the car is ticking over. Chances are, the motor has packed up or a fuse has gone.
Not sure where it is located but when I see my mate, ill ask him.