Hey guys, Ever since I've had my Z32 the heater has never worked properly. Here are the symptoms: 1. No hot air ever from upper vents 2. Foot vents do heat (but only a little bit) 3. Even if I have the temp set to 40 degrees, the top(face) vents will be icy cold and the foot vents will only be luke warm. My heater core has NOT been bypassed. I tried to look at the heater core under the dash but there wasn;t enough room with the clutch pedal in the way. I have used a datascan like program and all the vent temp sensors appear to work fine. Any ideas? I dont think my heater core is buggerd coz it doesnt leak and it does heat the feet a little bit. Anyone know how to check the heater tap?
Sounds like a job for my day off tomorrow. Hopefully I will be able to watch the vents move as I change the temperature. Thanks for your input
Got the same issues.... hate it in winter when you gota get up early to head out to warwick to watch fleet race bbrrrrr. Wasnt nice lol I think i gota replace the heater coil in mine...
I was also thinking that perhaps my heater core is partially blocked and thats why it doesnt get very warm. The rest of my cooling system was in rat shit condition when I bought the car. My waterpump had onyl 2 blades left out of 8 when I replaced it! And they were as weak as aluminium foil. So maybe they are in the heater core pipes causing problems. I might reverse flush the core tomorrow if I can reach the hoses. Oh i wish the Z's had a heater tap in the engine bay like my eb falcon used to. So easy to fix.
Ok today was a HUGE day! Decided to pull the dash out. I think i've found that my blend door motor (airmix motor) doesn't work. Therefore the air isnt directed into the heatercore = no hot air through top vents. Also I noticed that my recirc/outside air motor is stuffed also. Does anyone have one of these motors? I sent an email to coz but just waiting on reply (not sure if I need RHD specific).
Coz just got back to me. LHD motors are different. Looks like I can't get ahold of a motor so ive pulled the dash for nothing.
You can't clean up the contacts or anything like that in the motors. Last set I saw for sale I snapped up as they can be hard to come by. And no, I'm not interested in parting with them... YellowZX or whatever his name is has a Z he is parting out, he might be able to get you some.
Funny you just said that. Just before I read your post I decided to pull one of them apart and have a look. Everything looked fine but when I applied voltage to the connectors nothing happened. Anyway I pulled the cogs off and found that the pentiometer contacts were covered in the cog lubricating grease. Cleaned it up. Applied voltage - got movement! Yey. So I will try to clean up my other buggered motor and then try then both in car and see if its fixed! Yey hopefully this solves the issue. Now i gotta grab some new heater core hoses coz i had to cut my old ones.
Just an update. I managed to fix the 2 little motors which were stuffed. I cleaned them up put everything back together and I have heat again! Yey. I flushed out my heater core and got rid of heaps of shit. Heats well now. For reference: this is a pic of what the mode door motors look like inside. Notice all the greasy shit under the big cog. This is a pic before I cleaned it up. Once I got rid of the grease the pentiometer thing worked again and allowed the PCB board to know what position the doors were at. They wont move at all unless the pentiometer thing tells the PCB that it knows where the door is. Hence once I cleaned the connections it works like new! My fresh air/recirc one was also stuffed with the same problem. Works great now.
good stuff man. was your mode door making noise at all before you pulled them apart? like was it ticking???? heaps of members have this problem with the mode door. would be great to req for tech section for reference . do you think you can get to the mode door with the dash in? ive got an auto and i want to take it out and clean it etc because mine is ticking atm. maybe the gears are jumping or something. could also be that wen i put it back together it was put back without resetting the gears so it keep trying to move the door more and keeps clicking when its already fully opened...gets really annoying... im going to try and reset it this way first: if not i hope i can get the mode door out and clean it like you have done. p.s my intake door recirc one is working npz. its just the one on the heater box.
Hey Chad, Nah wasn't ticking. The 2 motors with issues didnt go anything at all when power was applied. But the motors will tick if the doors arent aligned properly (e.g if the pentiometer thinks the motor is in a different position than it really is). Coz the door will try to open / close more than is actually possible. I had a bit of trial and error making sure I had the doors aligned with the motors one I fixed them. If this happens for too long then i'm sure the little cogs could lose some teeth (which would result in ticking). It feels so wierd to have working climate control again. My door motors were stuck on full cold. So even in summer I would have to turn on and off the aircon compressor otherwise I wouuld freeze. Now I just change the temp Thanks HEAPS for your tech guides on dash/heater box removal. Made it shit loads easier with all your pics!!
Sorry didnt see your second question. Well removing the little motors was a bit difficult coz the motors are virtually stuck to the door arms. I had to use a screw driver to lever them out. Once you get them aligned as per service manual you then have to push them back into the door arms (which is hard). I found it a pain in the ass with the heaterbox out of the car. However that mode door motor you are talking about is on the side so it might be alright. Be a pain in the ass. With an auto it might be ok. Personally I would pull the dash and clean the other ones too coz they might need a clean anyway.
npz man, i know i make alot more sense out of something when its shown with heaps of pics so i did it for others ok kool im going to have to see if i can reset it first. worst comes to worse ill just have to bite the bullet and pull the dash again...:bash: dash will only take an hour or so . ahhh another wasted sunday :bash:
