944 Heater

[turbo-tastic]

Hi all.
My brother has just bought a 1988 944 Lux.
He is very happy with it, except the heater fan has been removed by the previous owner.
Does anyone here know why he may have done that?
And how easy/costly is it to replace?
Cheers Guys 'n' Gals,
Ed.

Also, it is missing the rubber bumper part from the front drivers side. Anyone know where to get one from, and how much to pay?
Cheers.

[softinthehead]

seems a rather odd thing to have done. unless someone was starting to shed excess weight as a track project. is the heater control unit still there? - these are ferociously expensive. Try and get hold of in issue of Porsche Post - the classifieds are full of spare parts brokers. if the control unit is missing I'd try Berlyn Services, Porschapart or probably one of the breakers yards that specialise in porsche. new the units cost almost a grand (!!!)

[mik_ok]

You sure it's the heater fan and not the heater element?

[Fatboy]

It's my car in question - it says in one of the reciepts from PCT in Coventry under work carried out:

Remove Heater Fan Replace Wiper Frame

And there is not a sound when you turn the fan on...

Whereabouts is the heater fan so I can have a look at it? If you turn the heater control to hot, you get lots of lovely hot air, when the car is moving

Also can anyone tell me what sort of antifreeze to use in the radiator, as it seems to be low on coolant...

Cheers,

Fatboy

>> Edited by Fatboy on Tuesday 11th January 18:24

[williamp]

Fatboy said:

It's my car in question - it says in one of the reciepts from PCT in Coventry under work carried out: Remove Heater Fan Replace Wiper Frame And there is not a sound when you turn the fan on... Whereabouts is the heater fan so I can have a look at it? If you turn the heater control to hot, you get lots of lovely hot air, when the car is moving Also can anyone tell me what sort of antifreeze to use in the radiator, as it seems to be low on coolant... Cheers, Fatboy >> Edited by Fatboy on Tuesday 11th January 18:24

The heater fan is very easy to get to. Unde rthe bonnet you have a rubber strip on top of a bulkhead. On early cars, the battery is aft of this bulkhead, under the windscreen. The fudebox is always aft of this bulkhead.

Anyway, the rubber strip simply lifts out. You can now gently lift the plastic rain cover up. Careful: it is secured under the windscreen, so you have to gently prise this plastic upwards, away from the bulkhead. Behold the heater system, with fan (this will be very obvious, if viewed from the drivers side).

Still usnure why they removed the fan, though. I would check the fuses first

Hope this helps

Will
89 Turbo
soon to be 320 bhp

[Fatboy]

Cheers for that - I'm off to check the fuses and have a look for the heater motor now It's an 88 model, so has the battery in the boot. I don't have an owners manual - got all the service records, but no handbook with all the oil grades etc unfortuneately.

I've been thinking of buying the electronic owners manuals CDs off ebay - are they any good?

[Fatboy]

Located the heater - it was still there, just unplugged. Turned out that the vendor must have disconnected it as it simply runs all the time at a constant speed regardless of what position the fan switch is set at...

Got to get to the bottom of that - anyone know an easy way of testing the switch?

[williamp]

It took you two hours! Well I know I said carefully, but 2 hours!!!

Not too sure about the fan being always on. One thought:carefully pull the knob off the fan switch on the inside. Sometimes they break and, although they look fine they have moved around a bit, hence "0" might still be "1". Careful, though. Trim is fragile, and a bit of a pain to replace...

[Fatboy]

Well, better safe than sorry Plus Turbo Tuesday is on Discovery

I checked the switch - you can feel it clicking positively between each position, so it could be that the switch has popped its clogs?

[2alexcoo]

Could be a problem with the series resistor that controls the fan speed. It sits on top of the blower housing, held on by 2 screws.

When these go the fan will usually only work on 0 (very slow, not actually off) or 4 (gale force ).

I suppose if you're electrically minded you could test it, but being lazy I just bought a replacement (secondhand) one from Porsch-Apart for about £20.

[dern]

Fatboy said:

I've been thinking of buying the electronic owners manuals CDs off ebay - are they any good?

Not brilliant but better than nothing. The quality of mine is pretty poor and finding stuff is quite difficult unfortunately.

Mark

[Fatboy]

That's a shame - still for the 5 quid all in it'll cost me I might as well go for it...

I've just joined the Porsche Club GB, so hopefully I can get a better manual from them, but until then it'll be a haynes manual and electronic one off ebay

If I'm testing the resistor, what am I looking for? I'm assuming it should read a specific value and if broken will be either 0 or huge? The fan is definately not on gale force , but is adequate for clearing the screen fortunately...

[dern]

Fatboy said:

That's a shame - still for the 5 quid all in it'll cost me I might as well go for it... I've just joined the Porsche Club GB, so hopefully I can get a better manual from them, but until then it'll be a haynes manual and electronic one off ebay

It's definitely worth a fiver and all I have to maintain mine.

Mark