20 replies to this topic

[Gerbil367]

I gave up after 3 valves split - the last one spraying me in hot coolant.  Just gone with the straight off option for now - it was hot on L2B, but didnt bother me that much - depends on your tolerance at being cooked!!!

[olly33]

I got the leaking head heater valve changed for an mpi plastic type.Could I use this inline in the engine bay, like you can with the Spi model version, as I know the mpi type should fix to the heater in the car? Thanks.

[crackfoo]

I gave up after 3 valves split - the last one spraying me in hot coolant.  Just gone with the straight off option for now - it was hot on L2B, but didnt bother me that much - depends on your tolerance at being cooked!!!

 

Are these the ones you speak of?

 

http://www.minispare...11.aspx|Back to

 

http://www.minispare...34.aspx|Back to

Edited by crackfoo, 06 January 2015 - 02:59 PM.

[olly33]

Hi, yes that what I will use, but I was on about the actual heater on off for flow of water.The black plastic and metal mpi type.

[mikep12]

As above the switch on the heater control panel just turns the blower on and off, and the off position on the slider just closes the flap to reduce the amount of hot air entering the car. If you remove the valve/tap, then you will still have hot coolant flowing through the heater matrix year round, some of which will be blown into the car by air flowing through the heater via the fresh air intake duct. There are actualy some advantages to this though, a permenant flow of coolant through the matrix makes it less likely to clog and block up over the summer months and it also helps prevent in hot weather by acting as a small auxiliary rad.
Trust me though, when you find yourself stuck in a tailback on a scorching hot day, in a tin box with no air conditioning, the last thing you want is to not be able to shut the heater off. I say this having spent a good hour and a half stuck in traffic with the wife and kids at L2B this year. It wasn't pleasant, even with the windows/ sunroof open and sporting a T-shirt, shorts & flip flops!
So my advice is to fit an inline valve (like the one pictured above), you don't really need to connect it up to the control knob on the dash if you don't want to, in reality you probably only ever open the valve in the autumn and close it again in the summer, so long as you can pop the bonnet and open/close the valve manually when you need to, then that's all that really matters.

Things must have changed with modern minis, with older models the only way to keep them cool in a traffic jam was to put the heater on, Oh happy days!

[Gerbil367]

I fitted mine with the alloy one from Minispares, been trouble free on that front for ages now