Ford Ka cnvertible

katie_saver

Hi,

Just bought a Ka and I can't seem to get any cool air into it even when it is on the coolest setting or air con.
I filled the water up last night but no change. Any ideas before I go to the garage and potentially get ripped off?

Thank you!

BeenThroughItAll

Stuck heater control valve. Pretty common on Kas and not hugely expensive to fix.

forgotmyname

As above they can stick on hot or cold and a common failure. Seems that some cheap aftermarket units have a short life also.

You need to move the controls from hot to cold on a regular basis to help prevent them sticking. Left in hot all winter or cold all summer doesnt help.

Strider590

As mentioned, extremely common fault on the KA

In fact, next to incurable rust it's probably the most common.

jc808

katie_saver wrote: »

Hi,

Just bought a Ka and I can't seem to get any cool air into it even when it is on the coolest setting or air con.
I filled the water up last night but no change. Any ideas before I go to the garage and potentially get ripped off?

Thank you!

Could also be a leak in the heating matrix or cooling system - this is very serious.

I have a Ka and it had a leak in the heating matrix, same problems you describe, hot air blowing out the fans, even though heater was off.

Truned out car was on verge of overheating through no coolant!!!!!!

It was a leak in the heating matrix - It was bypassed, two years on it still is OK - its just the heater doesnt work anymore, obviously

Strider590

jc808 wrote: »

Could also be a leak in the heating matrix or cooling system - this is very serious.

I have a Ka and it had a leak in the heating matrix, same problems you describe, hot air blowing out the fans, even though heater was off.

Truned out car was on verge of overheating through no coolant!!!!!!

It was a leak in the heating matrix - It was bypassed, two years on it still is OK - its just the heater doesnt work anymore, obviously

But if the heating matrix had a leak, OP would have a cabin full of wet carpets and a strong, almost unbearable smell of coolant.

jc808

not in my case, it leaked in the pipe just before the matrix, and shed its coolant into the engine

first i knew was a funny whiff (assumed it was the retarmacking works i was driving through) and hot air on my knuckles.

then the steam started coming out of the engine.....

i agree its probably stuck valve, but it could also be a leak....

Horizon81

Ah the good old heater control valve. Had the same happen to an old 1.6 fiesta of mine probably with the same engine. After the new valve was fitted the engine had a habit of overheating, so Ford drilled a hole in the thermostat, but the needle still kept heading north. Got rid of the antiquated pile of rubbish (at 4 years old) shortly after.

Richard53

Slightly (OK, massively) off-topic, but is there any agreement on how to pronounce the word 'Ka'? Some of the young people I work with own these and always refer to them as a 'Ford Kay-ay'. However, I remember when the Ka was launched, and the advert had a breathy female voice saying 'Get into the Ka', sounding just like 'car'. Just wondering.

Aaroncity

Kay-Ay surely? I've never heard it been called the Ford Kar lol

Richard53

May be an age thing. I've always assumed it was 'car' from the original adverts, and a friend (60+) who owned one called it a 'ca' (like 'cat' without the 't'), but he was a bit weird anyway. I had never heard it called Kayay until recently, and always from young people.


I'm sure someone who worked in a Ford dealership will be along any minute and can settle this