Winter Blues

check the pipes that run through the bulkhead into the heater unit to see if they are getting warm, its possible that the heater matrix may be partialy blocked if they are luke warm or even cold, esspecially if there are no other apparant problems with the cooling system, ie: the car isnt overheating, the temperature guage is working correctly and the engine appears to warm up ??? the cooling fan cuts in regularly when the engine is hot ?? etc. try removing the pipes to the heater matrix and flushing it through with a hosepipe. if there is air in the cooling system it will eventually work its way to the header tank.

Thanks, someone, I will try what you said, by the way my cooling fan has never cut in when the engine is hot, I guess the engine is not heating up to the right temperature?

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Thermostat stuck wide open? A new one costs very little and it's an easy DIY. If you can feel warm air coming through the vents as opposed to hot air, could be the radiator is cooling the whole system too much because of the unrestricted thermostat.

clamp them first so you don't loose your anti-freeze mixture

Very likely, just as long as the fan is actually working, you could unplug the fan switch, bridge the terminals, and see if the fan actually cuts in just to make sure.

although it may be worthwhile changing it as the af mixture goes acidic with age also a high af concentrate heats up quicker than a weak one

which area do you live in cos you can run to 50/50 mixture where the temp gets really low

in that case go 30 af to 70 water

and i would still put a new thermostat in there

"> and i would still put a new thermostat in there.

My thoughts exactly Mindwipe.

Is it a petrol engine or a diesel engine? what size? we know it's a '93. For Scotland (where I live) I would go for the manufacturer recommended amount. In my Haynes Manual for a petrol 205 it does not specify a percentage, but does suggest that you use enough to protect your engine down to -25 % C. This does suggest that it should state what percentage is required on the bottle of anti freeze that you bought and use the amount accordingly. However, in my Diesel Haynes manual for the 205, it suggests Antifreeze content should be 50% to protect down to -35%C

Stuart