ford ka with no heating advise please

fletcher1985

hi im asking this question for a friend in work she bought a ford ka about 5 months ago now its r reg and 1.3 petrol well her problem is that it has no heating at all even when the car has been running for over 30 minutes, and sometimes she comes in to work and only when she turns the engine off she gets steam coming out on the drivers side at the bottom of the windscreen where the bonnet starts, it only does this about once a week and stops within seconds, shes not loosing water, i had the same problem with my corsa last year i had a leak in my pipe and when the leak blow whilst i was ont he motor way coming home from work i had no heating aswel. i told her to get it checked, because she seems to have the same problems as me apart from mine didns steam until the pipe blew, has anyone got any ideas?

mrtg0525

Does the car have a temperature gauge and if so, does the temperature gauge indicate normal temperature?

fletcher1985

shes not mentioned about the temp gauge moving i think i asked her before and she said no

goldspanners

apparently after reading some similar threads on here recently there is common fault with the temperature control valve on this model.
but dont buy a new one from ebay,get it from ford,they are only around £20 if i remember correctly.

Keith

Ok the car is overheating, probably because the coolant is not fully circulating. It's rare that the Heater Control Valve causes overheating but it has been known.

The cars heating problem is most likely down to the heater control valve failing in it's closed position this restricts the hot coolant from entering the bulkhead and means no hot air. You need a replacement from Ford (ebay's are cheap OE and not worth it). A pair of molegrips, a spanner and a set of screwdrivers, remove the plastic bulkhead from the engine bay and wipers, unclip the pipes from the old valve and put the new one in it's place - do this whilst the engine is cold!. Then run the engine and top up the coolant, you need pink coolant.

This will fix the heating problem and may resolve the overheating too.

Keith

goldspanners wrote: »

apparently after reading some similar threads on here recently there is common fault with the temperature control valve on this model.

It's very very common on the Ka, Puma & Fiesta. If it's a nice weekend, I might pull my Ka apart and post a how too with photos so people don't need to go to Ford or a garage to replace this part.

fletcher1985

thanks guys, i will pass the information on to her tonight,.