Who designed the Range Rover Classic?

Other people will probably correct me, but it wouldn't surprise me if the original design was easier than that, but at some point in the life of the vehicle (25 years wasn't it?) it was all "simplified" into a single unit.

Stuart

I don't know about the Rangerover, but other cars I've owned have the resistor pack in the blower housing, so they can be cooled by the airflow. My Saab 9000 was this way, but was easily removed from the side of the blower. Does "inside the heater pack" mean in the airflow?

A lot cars have the resistor pack in the airflow deliberatly, as it's a wire-wound resisitor and gets quite hot.

Alex

I wouldn't consider the resistors to be a wearing item.

Danny's comment about the location in the air flow makes sense.

On or around Sun, 2 Jul 2006 21:03:54 +0100, "Pacman" enlightened us thusly:

if you can get access to the wires on the back of the switch, try connecting them to see if the fan works. Resistor failure is prone to happen on other things, but mostly not for 10 years or so, it's hardly a regular service item.

But I sympathise. Getting the heater out of a disco 1 is just as bad, dash out to get at it, took me about 4 hours start to finish.

Me too! Similar experience changing the matrix in my wifes Golf, I was alerted to the rather labour intensive job by the way the guy at G&S (GS&F now!) reacted when I asked for a heater matrix! I think they built the car around it. Not helped by the very rusty bolts holding it into the bulkhead (now no longer holding it onto the bulkhead as I hack-sawed them off and glued it back on!!)

Matt

What is it with car heaters? The matrix does fail, the speed resistors do, and of course on the P38, so do the poxy rubber O rings. Yet to do mine. Drip, drip, dribble, dribble. Officially another dash out job. There must be a better way they could design a heater with servicing in mind.

Alan C

Im my experience of car heaters, the car is built round the heater matrix ;)

I too have an RR Classic which is missing a heater blower speed. Diagnosic work with a multimeter shows that the switch is fine, but one of the resistors must have failed. The fact that it's buried within the blower unit is what's discouraged me from trying to fix it. But thanks for the (pretty obvious really) observation that placing it there puts it in the cooling airflow -- why didn't I think of that?

My (expensive) Electrical Troubleshooting Manual turned out to be for the 1994 model year Classics, and that suggests that for the very final vehicles the resistor pack was positioned elsewhere (wish I'd realsied that before I spent an hour trying to reconcile my diagnostic readings with the wrong wiring diagram!), so it looks as though someone realised the folly of the part price/labour charge imbalance at the eleventh hour.

Heaters don't HAVE to be buried -- my wife's Fiat Cinquecento allowed you to withdraw the heater matrix from under the bonnet in just 10 minutes or so, and the blower motor was easily accessible under the parcel shelf. But I admit it WAS a much simpler car.

GRAEME ALDOUS Yorkshire

They don't wear in the same way as bearings or brake pads wear but being wire wound they do "age" and if not cooled will become brittle and fail, either open circuit or partially short circuit.

What for?

I though they were built around the windscreen wiper rack.

Gordon.

Dunno but I have met the wife of the guy who first came up with the first LWB landie. Heaters are not the sort of thing to worry about in series motors cos they never work anyway. It sounds as if Rangies are not much better, its best to find a workaround I reckon.

On or around Tue, 4 Jul 2006 17:24:39 +0100, "Larry" enlightened us thusly:

Rangie heaters are excellent, as are discos, but getting the heater unit out to work on it is a nightmare.

That is what they call "swings and roundabouts" I suppose, you can either get at the bugger or it works but you can't get at it if it screws up.