I was mucking around with replacing the stereo in my '95 Disco I tonight and noticed something - neither heat dial turns all the way to hot. Doesn't seem to be any issues with the linkage - I had the glovebox out so I could see what was happening on that side. I've only had it for a couple months so have not really used the heat yet, so hadn't notice - they both go to the second to last hash mark on the dials. Seems plenty hot - which will be a nice change from the somewhat marginal heat of my P38. Normal?


The other thing I had previously noticed is that the heat doesn't completely shut off either. Both dials click to cold nicely, again linkages look like they are doing their thing, but there is always some warm air coming through. With the passenger side noticeably warmer than the driver's side. My truck does not have the vacuum water valve that some early Discos have. It's not enough to affect the working of the A/C, but it does mean I need to run the A/C more than I otherwise would have to. Normal? Any adjustment possible? I can't find anything related to this in RAVE.


As for the stereo - mine is another one with the amp under the seat. Tonight's project was making it go away, as it was causing ignition noise using the wiring harness to connect it to my Nakamichi headunit. Sounds MUCH better with the Nakamichi's onboard amp powering things. Should have done it this way in the first place, was a fairly easy job.


-Kevin
'95 Discovery I
'01 Range Rover HSE
Sundry BMWs and a Spitfire

 

I'd say it's normal considering how old these are. Blend door seals are rotted allowing warm air past. I believe they're just foam if I'm not mistaken. Good luck getting to those easily, have to remove the dash to get to the heater box. While your at it might as well replace the heater core just so you never have to, makes your time removing the dash more worthwhile....

 

That's kind of what I was thinking. Seems odd they deleted that water valve! I suppose it is one less thing to fail...


I am pretty sure the dash has been out at some point along the way - I noticed a missing bolt or two while I was under there. Hopefully that heater core has already been done!


-Kevin

 

Let's see, there's a gear in the system somewhere, I think behind the temperature ****. If you look under your drivers' side footwell area above the accelerator pedal, where the heat comes out and turn the drivers side HVAC dial from hot to cold, you'll see a vent door move. If you hold that cable and turn the dial to the right, wiggle the **** at the same time, you can get it to jump a tooth. Afterwards, if you turn the dial back all the way to 'cold' you may gain some adjustment in the dial and be able to turn it off fully.

I learned this by mistake because mine jumped a tooth by mistake just in the normal course of use ...I think it was in the winter when things were stiff and cold. I had to do the above proceedure to re-align it the way it was so it would have the full range on the dial. It did go back more, but it didn't shut the heat off completely on mine either ...but it was better. Most likely your rig could have vent door seal issues, but it may be worth trying. If it doesn't work, just repeat the process turning the dial backwards one tooth ..and get it to jump back where it was.

What I've been meaning to do, and I've done this on another vehicle in the past, is install a manual diverter valve in the hot water hose going to the heater core, and just shut the water flow to the heater core off in the summer, turn it back on in the winter. A lot easier than digging out the heater system. But I haven't done it yet on mine. Probably won't need to this time of year. Maybe next year.