Heater Tap Replacement - How To

[frog]

Thanks Vanny, I've followed this so far and removed my broken tap and refitted a (hopefully) good one.
I still have to reconnect everything on the engine side and check for leaks before all the trim goes back on.

[frog]

Well, hasn't gone as planned!


This tap wasn't leaking in the previous car.
I snapped that bottom right bolt trying to tighten it to stop the leaking..

So I've now got it all back in place, used some black silicone sealant and O rings from a different tap that look in a little better condition than these leaky ones.

I'll leave it all to set and report back in a few days, wish me luck!

[frog]

Ok, so back in and not leaking.
But I think the tap is slightly open as I have a little heat all the time!
Where the cable attaches to the tap must be a little out of adjustment?
Anyone have any suggestions for tackling this?

August edit: Still not leaking!

[Joris]

I managed to get it out!
Now i'm trying to get it working... Is there anybody with any tips?
I don't think it should be to hard but I don't want to break it.

Since chevronics is only selling used -for extorianete prices- ones and want you to send in the old ones I think it would be possible.

[xantia_v6]

These people also seem to recondition them: http://vitale-radiateurs.com/home/1476- ... en-bx.html

[andycadabra]

If you're interested I have a perfect one for sale, bought to replace mine, but I was able to fix my original one with broken pipe using hose and 15mm copper pipe.

[Vanny]

Couple of pics of the innards might help?



This was mine as it came out, the car had seen some rad weld in a spot of desperation, looks like every last bit of it stopped in the tap!



Filth vs clean



Cleaning in progress

[Joris]

Thanks! It was mainly the drilling out of the copper tubes that I felt not comfortable with. But did it. Now trying to get it back into the car is proving a bit of a hassle. But I should be able to get there.
Mine looked as filthy as yours, I don't know if it is radweld or just Junk from the cooling system. But that I have flushed out already, hopefully the heater core is clean-ish. Just having to put it back in the car now.

[Vanny]

Just seen your FB post



That looks pretty jammed up.

If it is rad seal, then its probably worth giving the engine the power flush of its life. I still have k-seal coming through the coolant, and its on a different engine since then and literally every coolant pipe has been replaced. I can only imagine some of the k-seal is still in the heater core on mine.

[Joris]

I have given it the abosulete powerflush of it's life. It has been trough probably 10 cycles of flushes, the water still comes out very very brown.
The level of sludge coming out is definetely becoming less but there still seems very little change, but it must have made a difference.
I'm starting to doubt how well the engine is kept judging by the amount of sludge coming out. Miraculously the car has now done about a thousand miles with me and hasn't thrown any problems towards overheating..

Highlight of my flushing experience is filling the system up with water with the top radiator hose of and manually blowing trough the water...

I'm going to be giving up on flushing for a moment and hope that I or somebody else can come up with a better way of flushing.

[andycadabra]

garden hose not an option?

[Joris]

No unfortunately that didn't bring any dirt out what so ever. But blowing trough the radiator (which would have been a lot easier with a compressor..) brought a lot of sud out.

The amount of flakes that came out was unbelievable but the enginge seems to work fine as it is now.
It's something I will look in to later when it has done a bit more driving and I've got some other work done.

[Jaba]

No unfortunately that didn't bring any dirt out what so ever. But blowing trough the radiator (which would have been a lot easier with a compressor..) brought a lot of sud out.

The amount of flakes that came out was unbelievable but the enginge seems to work fine as it is now.
It's something I will look in to later when it has done a bit more driving and I've got some other work done.

You don't say what model you have but my experience may be relevant to you.
Once upon a time I had a petrol BX with the wet liner engine which had a head gasket failure not long after I acquired it.
On taking the head off I was amazed to see an enormous quantity of radweld just sitting there in the bottom of the block around the cylinder liners. It took an age to clean it all out as it had congealed together at the back of the block. Horrible stuff it should be banned for the trouble it causes whilst not actually permanently fixing the leak it is installed for.

[Joris]

No unfortunately that didn't bring any dirt out what so ever. But blowing trough the radiator (which would have been a lot easier with a compressor..) brought a lot of sud out.

The amount of flakes that came out was unbelievable but the enginge seems to work fine as it is now.
It's something I will look in to later when it has done a bit more driving and I've got some other work done.

You don't say what model you have but my experience may be relevant to you.
Once upon a time I had a petrol BX with the wet liner engine which had a head gasket failure not long after I acquired it.
On taking the head off I was amazed to see an enormous quantity of radweld just sitting there in the bottom of the block around the cylinder liners. It took an age to clean it all out as it had congealed together at the back of the block. Horrible stuff it should be banned for the trouble it causes whilst not actually permanently fixing the leak it is installed for.

It's a 1987 19 TRS Auto Petrol

[Vanny]

Citroën BX – Heater Tap Overhaul – Part 4

The moment literally no one has been waiting for, after eleven years since I first started this how-to series, the fourth and final part is now written and available over on the BXProject Blog.



https://bxproject.co.uk/blog/citroen-bx ... ul-part-4/