Heater

[edsaysyes]

Just bought a 1993 air cooled. Not the best of heaters for this weather . I have a slight sense of warmth very close to the dashboard vents when the car is moving Pulling in or out the two levers on the dash board helps get more cold air Turning on the fan achieves a fantastic icy blast. Looks like I have great air conditioning for the summer.  Lovely warm hand brake though. Anyone suggest where to start to find the problem. Would be nice to drive without the ski suit on. Just joking there is background warmth on a journey but nothing noticeable from where it should originate Would be nice to have it coming out of the heater in noticeable quantities.

[Darrell]

Check the thermostat flap is closing when the engine is cold as the blast of warm air is great up till the engine is at operating temperature. Normally I find after that the air needs to be throttled back anyhow.

Remove the tunnel and check for obstructions although I find it hard to believe something would completely stop the airflow as you describe.

Also check the cold air flap is closing as you may be pushing all your hot air into the boot!

[Darrell]

I have been working on mine today, and found that the foam seals that seal between the outer plastic vent covers and the bodywork were not in place.
I also shone a light inside the engine bay, peered in through the outer vent and saw that the rubber seal is not that effective and there were gaps.
I solved these gaps with silicone sealer and then replaced the foam to seal-up against the outer plastic vent cover.
The reason I decided to examine this is because the 126 air cooled seems to have a habbit of pumping whatever fumes that are in the engine bay, into the car.
My Dellorto FZD is a great carb but when cold she backfires once or twice. After these backfires I always seem to smell fuel in the car, stands to reason that a backfire reverses the flow of air through the carb  momentarily and will mean some fuel vapour will end-up in the engine bay.
My theory is if all is sealed, the only source of odour can be from the head itself thus I feel I have eliminated one possible source of the fumes.

[Darrell]

Do NOT used silicone sealer on engines with an ECU with and exhaust sensor.

I have been researching ECU's etc and found out that silicone sealer destroys the exhaust sensor

[Rusty's Uncle]

If your handbrake lever heats up then the hot air is getting into the tunnel. One easy test is to pop off the rectangular connecting hose between the the tunnel outlet section and the heater inlet to see if you have got hot air there . In my experience the flaps and levers on the heater controls break or jam quite easily but they can be fixed with a bit of care  [-/

[Darrell]

From my experience the heater 'switch' is at the rear of the tunnel.

The plastic switches do not cut-off the airflow but only re-direct the airflow up or down.

There is a flap that opens to let cold air in and this may not be closing

I still suspect the thermostat is either not present and the flap is staying open or
The thermostat is stuck open

[smallcox]

Hi Edsaysyes,

First protocal with this one is to stop all those draft as this will have a major impact on interior temp.

Get some mastik and find all those small holes in the front dash/footwell area, places where the wiring comes through and the steering shaft passes through, any small hole will badly affect temp (try your mordern car open the window 1 inch and feel the difference), also the plastic clips that hold the dash trim in place will pass cold air into the car at speed, replace the foam that holds the cold feed flap in the centre off the bulkhead and once sealed your more than half way there.
As the gentleman above mention make sure the flap on the engine cowl is shut when cold and all the heat will pass into the car. If you want to be flash you can remove the ducting above the rear suspension and cover it with insulation and bolt back into place. How warm is that [-/

[Darrell]

Possibly a good purchase for air-coolers and 500's

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-FASCETTE-STRINGITUBO-CON-COPPIGLIA-400-mm-FIAT-500-/110558688910?pt=Ricambi_automobili&hash=item19bdcfb68e

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/2-FASCETTE-STRINGITUBO-CON-COPPIGLIA-500-mm-FIAT-500-/120595082317?pt=Ricambi_automobili&hash=item1c1406ec4d

[GTMaster]

I used standard clamps as the originals were fairly rusty (still have them though). It will always be a bit warm around the handbrake lever as there's only a thin layer of carpet that blocks the hole there. I changed all of the sponge thingys around the tunnel as the originals perish after 20 or so years. Make sure the gear lever rubber boot doesn't have a hole in it either. As mentioned before if you close the passage from the boot then the hot air won't go into the boot. You'll only experience good heating if you go for longer trips i'm afraid....

[Rusty's Uncle]

The removable front tunnel section on my 500 had rotted away at the base . I found that the bottom part was the same as the 126. So I drilled out the spot welds that held the top to bottom sections of 500 & a 126 ones and pop riveted the good 500 top onto a good 126 base. To get a good seal when I refitted it I found some 12mms wide self adhesive draught excluder which stuck nicely onto the new paint  [-/

[edsaysyes]

Looks like I need a dry day to crawl about inside and examine the tunnel area. I have had this car on a long run as it covered about 700 kms before I got back to Germany from Poland. It actually was sort of comfortable temperature inside with good thick sweater on but could not find any heat comming out of any of the places it should come from. Thanks for all the answers and keep the suggestions coming

[dajwid]

Does yours have the little lever behind the drivers seat? Heater on/off

[edsaysyes]

It has the lever on the floor beside the choke. Two small pull in and out knobs above the radio position and the lever on the dash board at the centre vent that give air up or down Have not looked for any more heater knobs yet.

[Darrell]

No there is a lever on the top of the tunnel just in front of the rear seat

[edsaysyes]

Crikey You live and learn If I put all the info on this site in one book could I sell as many as Haynes