mbonner

Hi, what is the fix on the early 83 944 whre you can't switch the heat off. Seems the cable to the valve has come off the linkage for the heater control.
Also, is it possible to put a valve in a heater hose for heat control, and where should it be put?
Thanks,
Mike

Porsche-O-Phile

More likely you've experienced the dreaded heater clip failure. . .

Porsche engineers, in their infinite wisdom decided way back when to use plastic clips instead of metal ones at the junction of the actuator rods and damper doors - with predictable results. Order a bunch from Pelican or Paragon or your local dealership. They run less than a buck each and it's a ten-minute fix with a phillips-head screwdriver.

Even if it is the cable at the linkage, it shouldn't be that difficult to fix.

Dave in Chicago

Easiest fix you will ever make for a few dollars... There are two pieces to buy.

http://www.tech-session.com/kb/index...x_v2&id=44&c=4

Jfrahm

On an early car? I thought the clip was on late cars.

There is already a water valve for heat control on early and late cars. The late cars have a vacuum operated one, early cars have a cable oeprated one IIRC.

-Joel.

tifosiman

I believe you to be correct sir.

caster951

The fix is most likely a faulty, or sticky, heater control valve. The valve is located at the back upper part of the engine behind the intake manifold and in front of the firewall. To find a temporary fix for the always on heat, you can reach down, when the engine is cool and slide the white bar on the heater control valve all the way towards the passenger side of the engine compartment. Make sure the slider in the dash is moved to full cold. Repeat in opposite direction for heat to come on. Then, get a new valve and fix it right when you can.

Porsche-O-Phile

Just saw you have an early car, my apologies. The clips that like to fail are indeed on the later cars.

Heater valves are reasonably inexpensive and not too terribly difficult to fix - best of luck.

Tony K

HERE IS YOUR CORRECT ANSWER FOR YOUR 83 944:

The slide lever heater control for the 83 944 is made of plastic, and the cable housings are clipped to the plastic with metal clips. The cable for the hot/cold lever is the longest, and the attachment point is in such a way that it is easy to break off. What typically happens is that when the cable gets old or gets moved into a new position by a careless mechanic, you push on the lever, it is hard to move the cable, so the outer housing of the cable just breaks off the corner of the plastic frame of the heater control instead.

Then, if you pull the lever to hot, it pulls the cable and opens the heater valve, but when you push the lever to cold, rather than pushing the cable through its housing, it just bends the whole cable/housing as it is floating free, rather than sliding the cable through its housing to push the lever closed on the valve under the hood.

The fix is to buy a new heater control unit (less than $50), and buy a new cable for the hot/cold. If you don't replace the cable, you will just break the new heater control. Don't bother gluing, epoxying, JB Welding, etc. the old heater control - not strong enough, and too big of a pain to want to do twice. When you install the new one, take care to route the new cable in the gentlest path possible to minimize the chances of binding.

As a temporary get-you-home fix, take a long, heavy screw driver, open the hood, and push the lever closed on the heater valve. You will find it directly behind the engine, a little low down. It connects two hoses and has a white arm with little holes on it sticking out, with the end of the cable going through one of the holes. After you push the lever closed with the screwdriver, go in the car, and you will see that your hot/cold lever has returned to the cold position. If you pull it toward warm, you will have to go back out, lift the hood, and do the screwdriver thing to get it back to cold. You may notice that, after a couple hundred miles, the valve may start to open slightly (little bit of warm air) on its own. If you don't fix it right away, this annoyance will lead you to do so soon enough!

Cheers,

Tony


Edit: Yes, you have to go through the annoying process of pulling almost everything from the front of the center console/gauge cluster. There are a couple of things you will have to do from behind in the driver's footwell - maybe to attach the clips/cables - I don't remember any more. I just remember how annoying it is to deal with that mess of cables and wires inside there. But the heater control comes out the front. Watch for a couple of hidden screws - I don't remember how many there are for the whole job, but I do remember having to remove every screw in sight and there being more than I expected.

Dave in Chicago

Oops! Missed the early-car situation here too. Doh!

Where did I set down my coffee cup?

jonnybgood

German cars heater systems fail to full on to preserve the occupants during the cold bavarian winters. Either your control system failed or your heater valve failed.

I didn't read all of the previous posts but wanted to add that the heater control valve on the early cars is directly above the flywheel and clutch. If you need to remove and replace your heater valve take precautions to insure that no coolant drains down through the flywheel TDC inspection holes into your flywheel, clutch and throwout bearing. Quick way to make a long hard job (clutch replacement) out of a simple heater valve replacement.

mbonner

Well, thank you for all the tips, folks, but the valve is fine, the cable is attached to the valve OK but the inside end of the cable became detached from the linkage. The hot-cold lever suddenly had no resistance when I moved it to shut off the heat. As far as I know the plastic thing which holds the cable end is broken. I was aware of the dangers of coolant flowing into the clutch housing, in fact I put a plug in the hole when I first read about it, but thank you for bringing it up, I might not have known that, saving a possible disaster.
Mike

Tony K

You're welcome.

Chris_924s

Dave- I've been guilty myself when responding to LATE dash issues.

No harm.