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Citroen AX 1.5D heating/coolant

There's hardly any heat getting through to the passenger compartment heater on my AX. Although other things have yet to be ruled out, I suspect that the heater matrix may be airlocked. I can only find one coolant system bleedpoint (between the expansion tank and the bulkhead) and I'm sure there should be more. Can anyone advise? There's a definite high point (inverted U) in one of the hoses with no bleed point, which seems wrong - maybe someone's replaced a hose at some point and not bothered to fit the correct one. The Haynes manual is as usual as much use as a chocolate condom - the coverage of the 1.5D variant is mixed to say the least (e.g. it gives a completely wrong position for the inlet/outlet hoses through the bulkhead - says it's best accessed from below the vehicle, in fact they're at the top of the bulkhead).

Any other suggestions welcome. It's not a dodgy thermostat making the engine run clap cold - changed that. The old coolant looked in reasonable condition. No sign of any engine overheating. The expansion tank contents seems to take a long old while to get hot but I don't know whether that's to be expected or not.

Reply to
Nick Dobb
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You can try vacuum filling it but try connecting a hose directly to the heater matrix first

Reply to
Duncanwood

Can you give any more details?

Reply to
Nick Dobb

This car has the cooling system from hell. You need to fill it using a separate header tank held high above the engine bay. Most people never bother changing the coolant, then the core plugs and head gasket go.

Reply to
Zog The Undeniable

I thought it was only the 1.4 diesels that had head gasket problems?

Reply to
AstraVanMan

THe 1.4 diesels have problems with the wet liners or something similar which causes gasket problems AFAIK.

Reply to
Malc

It's the same engine as in the 106 I think. We had an identical problem due to the previous owner not doing much maintenance on the vehicle. The radiator was losing all its fins too.

Anyway, I tried bleeding and refilling using a header tank to no avail. In the end I cut both the flow and return to the heater matrix, inserted a couple of inches of copper pipe (1/2" or 15mm) into the cut ends and connected a garden hose to it. A wadge of brown sludge shot out and after about 5 minutes the water ran clear. I reconnected the pipes using the copper tube and jubilee clips, refilled using a header tank and bled the system. It now works perfectly.

As far as I can ascertain there is only one bleed screw in the system and that is not on a pipe going to the heater.

Reply to
Malc

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