Ka Advice

Mockingjay

Hi, I'm dropping my 04 Ford Ka off to my local garage tomorrow. It has 2 problems.

1.) The heater is broken & only blasts out hot air and has done since October. The faster I go, the hotter it gets!

2.) I hit a large pot hole last weekend & the metal part of my front passenger wheel has bent.

Any idea how much I should expect to pay to have these fixed? I just want to be prepared!

forgotmyname

£20 or less for a wheel and tyre from a breakers.

Heater could be anything from a faulty flap, Thermostat or a serious headgasket issue.

£20 to £2000+

Did it lose water?

knight_rider

The heater problem will be the heater control valve, a common fault on the fiesta and ka. The part is usually £20-£36 and takes about 30 minutes to fit.

The heater will either blow hot or cold with no control over the temperature.

Mockingjay

Thank you both!

No water lost. It's been keeping me very toasty since October (although my boyfriend is warm by nature so basically boils on long journeys!) & running fine so hoping it is the valve and a cheap fix.

The car isn't worth £2000 so if it's anywhere near that I'll get rid of it!

OddballJamie

Yep heater control valve, did one a month ago, paid £12 front local car spares for copy part. Genuine Ford part about £60.

If it's an alloy then about £40 from a scrappers and maybe a tyre if there's a budge. I also had a dented alloy on the same KA, my friend is a fitter and hammered the dent out using a special tool.

motorguy

OddballJamie wrote: »

Yep heater control valve, did one a month ago, paid £12 front local car spares for copy part. Genuine Ford part about £60.

If it's an alloy then about £40 from a scrappers and maybe a tyre if there's a budge. I also had a dented alloy on the same KA, my friend is a fitter and hammered the dent out using a special tool.

One of these??

OddballJamie

rClose. It was one of these.

Strider590

Mockingjay wrote: »

Hi, I'm dropping my 04 Ford Ka off to my local garage tomorrow. It has 2 problems.

1.) The heater is broken & only blasts out hot air and has done since October. The faster I go, the hotter it gets!

VERY common fault on these cars.

Mockingjay wrote: »

2.) I hit a large pot hole last weekend & the metal part of my front passenger wheel has bent.

You shouldn't be driving a car if the wheel is damaged, a blowout is VERY likely because the tyre won't sitting correctly on the wheel.

knight_rider

If you are going to keep the car for a while i would get a Ford heater control valve.

The cheap ones don`t last very long.

Mockingjay

Strider590 wrote: »

VERY common fault on these cars.



You shouldn't be driving a car if the wheel is damaged, a blowout is VERY likely because the tyre won't sitting correctly on the wheel.

Luckily I didn't suffer from one but I'll remember in future!

Anyway, car is fixed - horrah! Had both faults fixed & a service for £130. I budgeted £300 so happy with that but I'm planning on having a few car maintenance lessons woth my boyfriend's Dad. Relying on a garage & an especially busy one!

red_eye

forgotmyname wrote: »

£20 or less for a wheel and tyre from a breakers.

Heater could be anything from a faulty flap, Thermostat or a serious headgasket issue.

£20 to £2000+

Did it lose water?

not a head gasket or thermostat, they have nothing to do with supplying cold air to the cabin.

Looking at a rod has come lose or at worst the valve