Heater doesn't work? Heat coming from the manual shifter area

[TheShark850]

First off , I hate the searching function on this forum , looked up Posts in E31 forums with titles - Heater doesn't work - no results ? That's impossible . Am I doing something wrong or is the search function just weird ?

Anyways , heater doesn't work and it's been iffy for a while and it finally stopped . It worked before after a long while of the car running , now it won't at all . Sword has been repaired . The odd part is I feel a lot of heat coming from where the manual stick shift is , but none from the defrosters on the windshield or the air vents . Any ideas why ? Thanks guys

Car 1992 850i , manual

[olinjohnston]

The odd part is I feel a lot of heat coming from where the manual stick shift is , but none from the defrosters on the windshield or the air vents . Any ideas why ?

That heat is probably just coming from under the car through the opening in the body for the gear shift. I would check operation of the heater vent valve up near the firewall, which is in charge of the distribution (and blocking) of coolant the the dash/heater core.

[TheShark850]

Is the heater vent valve inside the car or in the engine bay ?

[rjbaren]

Engine bay

[Timm]

If you get lots of air and no heat - then this is the way to go:

http://www.meeknet.co.uk/e31/E31_Hea...eplacement.htm

http://www.meeknet.co.uk/e31/E31_Coo...g_Bleeding.htm

If you get no air, hot or cold, then it could well be the blower motor itself.....

[TheShark850]

Antifreeze , radiator and thermostat were all replaced , the heater worked afterwards (car had to run forever for it to turn on but it did turn on) . Now it just blows cold air no matter how long the car runs . I will definitely check into the things you mentioned . Your website is getting pretty nice and very well written , good job Timm

[Carl1011]

Timm comes through again.

I haven’t driven my 8 during winter for about six years. I took it out last week and the heater was just blowing cold air. So today I visited Timm’s site and followed his 4000 rpm bleeding directions. After about 20 seconds the air starting getting warmer and lo and behold I have heat now.

Thanks Timm. It cost me about thirty minutes and zero dollars. Never would have thought the fix would be that easy!

[dragon850]

Either heater valves are sot or aux water pump seized or both.