27 replies to this topic

[roblightbody]

for some reason noone ever seems to agree with me on this, but i NEVER keep any of those valves on my minis, i always take it off and either have just a plain heater take off from the end of the head, or on later cars replace that inline valve with a bit of copper pipe to remove it completely. this way there is nothing to break or leak and your heater always gets full flow of hot water, always nice and toasty round your feet!

 

in the summer i just open the window! there isnt nearly enough wind blown around by the heater fan (when its on cold) to keep me cool on hot summer days, and i like having fresh air coming in around my face too. a faint gust of wind around my feet just doesnt cut it in the middle of july im affraid.

 

i have had every mini in the past 12 years like this, and even did the same on my missis ford KA when the heater vlave kept jamming on that.

 

If I have my heater tap on hot/open, and the air flow director set to OFF, it still brings a lot of heat into the passenger footwell, just because of the hot pipes, and hot heater unit itself.  With the heater tap on Cold, the unit itself goes cold.  

[its_courts28]

I just want it hot or turned off, I don't use it for cold but don't understand how you can bypass the valve

[HarrysMini]

You can bypass the valve by fitting one of these. http://www.minispare...|Back to search

 

You can't bypass the valve and be able to turn it on/off.

[AVV IT]

Bypassing the heater valve will mean that hot coolant will constantly flow into the matrix, and you'll only then be able to control the temperature by turning the blower on and off. If you want to be able to shut the heater off completely, then you'll need some sort of valve in the heater circuit, either the inline version fitted to earlier models, or some people have even fitted an inline electronic valve from a modern car (I seem to recall that a Fiesta valve can be used for this). Whichever method you use, you'll need the outlet that Harrysmini mentions above, in order to connect the heater hose to the head when you remove the original valve.

[plantfitterRich]

[plantfitterRich]

I was selling these a while ago, think I still have one.
There is a on/off valve near the pipe connections. Allowing a selector cable or activating rod to be fitted close in the car.

[plantfitterRich]

[its_courts28]

Bypassing the heater valve will mean that hot coolant will constantly flow into the matrix, and you'll only then be able to control the temperature by turning the blower on and off. If you want to be able to shut the heater off completely, then you'll need some sort of valve in the heater circuit, either the inline version fitted to earlier models, or some people have even fitted an inline electronic valve from a modern car (I seem to recall that a Fiesta valve can be used for this). Whichever method you use, you'll need the outlet that Harrysmini mentions above, in order to connect the heater hose to the head when you remove the original valve.

That's all I want, if I have the blower on it's for heat that's it

[HarrysMini]

Bypassing the heater valve will mean that hot coolant will constantly flow into the matrix, and you'll only then be able to control the temperature by turning the blower on and off. If you want to be able to shut the heater off completely, then you'll need some sort of valve in the heater circuit, either the inline version fitted to earlier models, or some people have even fitted an inline electronic valve from a modern car (I seem to recall that a Fiesta valve can be used for this). Whichever method you use, you'll need the outlet that Harrysmini mentions above, in order to connect the heater hose to the head when you remove the original valve.

That's all I want, if I have the blower on it's for heat that's it

But do you still actually want to be able to stop hot water running through the heating system?

If yes, you will need some kind of valve (inline or head mounted).
If not, will have to use the piece I mentioned to completely remove the valve.

If it's that piece that is falling off then maybe there's something wrong with your head?

[its_courts28]

Bypassing the heater valve will mean that hot coolant will constantly flow into the matrix, and you'll only then be able to control the temperature by turning the blower on and off. If you want to be able to shut the heater off completely, then you'll need some sort of valve in the heater circuit, either the inline version fitted to earlier models, or some people have even fitted an inline electronic valve from a modern car (I seem to recall that a Fiesta valve can be used for this). Whichever method you use, you'll need the outlet that Harrysmini mentions above, in order to connect the heater hose to the head when you remove the original valve.

That's all I want, if I have the blower on it's for heat that's it

But do you still actually want to be able to stop hot water running through the heating system?

If yes, you will need some kind of valve (inline or head mounted).
If not, will have to use the piece I mentioned to completely remove the valve.

If it's that piece that is falling off then maybe there's something wrong with your head?

I just want heat to come out, I don't want cold air to blow out, as I said I only turn it on for the heat if not it's always turned off. On the valve there's a gold circle piece with like an arm that opens and closes, that's the bit that keeps dropping off

[AVV IT]

I realise that you dont want to use the heater for attempting to blow cool air, but the problem with removing the tap/valve completely is that hot coolant will constantly flow through the matrix that you won't be able to switch off. A considerable amount of heat just drops out of the heater, even whilst the blower is off, particularly whilst the car is moving, as it is aided by air coming through the fresh air intake duct. So on hot summer days, not having a tap/valve turns the classic mini sauna (with its lack of air conditioning), into even more of an oven. That's not really going to be a problem at this time of the year though, so you could always remove the valve/tap for now and see how you get on, with the option of fitting an inline version in the summer if you find that you need one. On the plus side, having a permenant/year round flow of coolant through the heater circuit, means that sludge and debris is less likely to settle in the bottom of your matrix over the summer months that will cause it to block, corrode and leak.

The fault you describe with your heater taps, seems to be the internal mechanism dropping out of the front of the outer heater tap casting. There seems to be a dodgy batch of those heater taps around at the moment, as that's exactly what's happened to mine twice now. The other thing you ought to check though, is that this isn't actually a symptom of a faulty radiator cap. If your rad cap is faulty and not releasing any excess pressure in the system, then the heater tap could be continually blowing as it's a weak point in the system. As others here are having exactly the same problem, then I think it's probably more likely to just be a faulty batch of parts, but it still might be worth replacing the rad cap any way as a matter of course, just to make sure.

[cradley-heathen]

 

for some reason noone ever seems to agree with me on this, but i NEVER keep any of those valves on my minis, i always take it off and either have just a plain heater take off from the end of the head, or on later cars replace that inline valve with a bit of copper pipe to remove it completely. this way there is nothing to break or leak and your heater always gets full flow of hot water, always nice and toasty round your feet!

 

in the summer i just open the window! there isnt nearly enough wind blown around by the heater fan (when its on cold) to keep me cool on hot summer days, and i like having fresh air coming in around my face too. a faint gust of wind around my feet just doesnt cut it in the middle of july im affraid.

 

i have had every mini in the past 12 years like this, and even did the same on my missis ford KA when the heater vlave kept jamming on that.

 

If I have my heater tap on hot/open, and the air flow director set to OFF, it still brings a lot of heat into the passenger footwell, just because of the hot pipes, and hot heater unit itself.  With the heater tap on Cold, the unit itself goes cold.  

 

 

im becoming aware that i probably seem really argumentative on here, but i have never experience this at all, and as i said this is something i have always done.

 

 however i remove the ducting that goes from the inner wing to the side of the heater too and blank it off to stop cold air blowing in when im driving. the bennefit of doing this is that in the winter your never drawing any cold air in from the outide, even if it it going through the heater and getting warmed up, your effectively just circulating and continually heating the warm air over and over, toastie! this would obviously stop air from the outide flowing through the heater and cooking you in the summer too.

 

like i say, sorry to sound argumentative, but this really has always worked fine for me.

[AVV IT]

I don't think you're being argumentative, we all have different experiences with this sort of thing and it's good to share/debate them a bit, so that others can draw their own opinions from them, that's what forums are for.

Speaking of which, personally I wouldn't remove/blank off the fresh air intake duct either, I can see that it would stop air being pushed through the matrix and cooking you in the summer, but then without the ventilation it provides, the heater merely recirculates the air inside the car, causing it to become ever more damp and thus cause problems with condensation. (A problem you could probably get around by driving with the window down year round admittedly.) From what I understand the recirculatory heaters fitted to earlier models weren't very effective for exactly this reason, which is also why the fresh air duct was added to those on later models.