Need help re Ford Ka heater!!

Timmne

Hi all, wonder if anyone can help me please?

I was driving my girlfriend's KA home this evening and her heating seems to have stopped working inside the car so it's freezing! Also a few miles and about 10 minutes later the temperature light came on and was flashing.

Given my zero knowledge of cars, I need to find out what it is that's broken, and whether I can fix it myself....

Any advice pls?

Happychappy

I think you will find it is not your heater but a water coolant circulation problem, i.e you may not have any water in the radiator and in the cooling system,

Check by letting the car cool down and check the water resevoir to see if the water level has dropped. Also check for leaks, you may well need to top it up and run the engine watching for leaks, however, if there is no water, there is a reason. One is a leak in the pipes, water pump etc, or the other is a cylinder head problem

If the water is low, you have a leak and need to get it fixed, I wouldnt run it much as it may overheat and cause further damage. Dip the oil dipstick and see if there is water in the oil.

Are you in the AA RAC or Salvation Army or some breakdown service? If so call them out asap

Timmne

Brill - thanks a lot for that....

I was only telling somebody today how good the car is as well - I'll learn not to in future!!

and for your help :beer:

Altarf

Be careful if you are not sure of what you are doing. The water in the radiator is under pressure and if you remove the radiator cap before it has cooled down, then it can spurt out and burn you.

On the KA you don't actually remove the radiator cap itself, but there is a clearish expansion tank at the furthest back left (as you stand in front of the car with bonnet open), which should have a max and min mark on it, but again do not remove the cap until it has cooled down.

If you need a manual for the car, have a look here (page 85 to 87 is what you need) -

http://www.fordeurope.net/downloads/manuals/manual_ka.pdf

Don't forget if it needs topping up with any significant amount, don't just put in plain water as it will freeze.

Tom_Jones

Sorry Timmne but it's a well known fault with Ford Ka, it happened with my daughters, the internal parts of the heater rust and they usually stay either in the cold position or hot position. What I was told by a mechanic is that you should turn the heater dial at least twice a day to prevent this.

Costs about £50 for the part and about £100 to fit as it's an awkward job.

mr_accountant

i think the part which has failed is called the heater valve, which stays in the cold position. do a search on this forum, its a known problem for ford. also try www.honestjohn.co.uk, plenty of experts there.

Keith

I agree with Mr Accountant, what has probably failed is this part

Its quite a straight forward job, take the wipers off, a few screws remove the plastic and then there is two pipes, you need molegrips to remove them from the old part, mind the hot water, replace the part and then connect it all up, fill up the coolant and allow it to settle.

It happened to our Ka, and took my friend an hour or so to replace the part with just basic tools

Altarf

A failed heater valve would cause the heater not to work, but it wouldn't cause the engine to overheat.

Timmne

Thanks for your help everyone- we've just filled up the water and the problem's stopped - although this is probably a short-term solution it seems to have worked (seems to have...).

How long will this suspend the problem for? I really can't afford to fix it at the moment (if I try it myself I will break something; I always do with everything to do with cars!)-I would prefer to take it to the garage down the road, is this feasible do you think?

Timmne

Thought I'd ask while I'm leaching from everyone's good knowledge; the KA's fan doesn't work at level 3, only 1,2 and 4 - is this easy to fix?

Cheers again (this time in advance!)

:beer:

Altarf

Timmne wrote:

Thanks for your help everyone- we've just filled up the water and the problem's stopped - although this is probably a short-term solution it seems to have worked (seems to have...).

How long will this suspend the problem for?

It depends why the water leaked out. If you have not found and fixed the source of the leak (hole in a hose, radiator, expansion tank, failed head gasket, etc) then it will last until the car next warms up. Then all the water will disappear again, with the obvious risk of doing serious damage to the engine when it overheats.

Also how much water did you put in? If it was a substantial amount then beware of any cold nights as it could freeze with no anti-freeze in it, and again could cause serious damage to the engine.