I noticed a constant stream of hot air flowing to the footwell when driving. I am assuming its the heat from the engine bay coming in. It is very discomforting. Advise please.

Heater control valve gone bad, Drivers side?

Is that with the AC on or off?

if bad, It will throw heat inside always.

Heater control valve gone bad, Drivers side?

Yes. But I havent sat in the passenger seat to check. Will do that.

What other symptoms should I expect?

Is that with the AC on or off?

AC off. With AC on, its still noticeable because my AC doesnt blow cold enough.

I noticed the same thing whenever I open the roof or the windows...I was looking for the opening the other day! I will check into it too.

Same deal over here. Hot air in the feet area also - except way hotter in the passenger side.

8eights is right its the heater control value, replace it, not hard.

Yep, not a hard process. Might as well get a new aux pump and hoses too.

What's the best test to confirm that the heater control valve gone bad? besides the hot air comming at the footwell? There is gotta be a better way for an acurate test right?

Turn the ac on the top vent only, Then check to see if there's heat at your leg/foot area. You can also here them clicking when you plug and unplug them and when there in use, There's another way but i don't recall.

Turn the ac on the top vent only, Then check to see if there's heat at your leg/foot area. You can also here them clicking when you plug and unplug them and when there in use, There's another way but i don't recall.

Dumb question:
How do you turn the AC on on the top vents only without getting it blowing to the feet as well? As per the HVAC controls, is that possible?

http://tweakers.net/ext/f/VQgIEoKc865QTpYBHSS82fHY/full.jpg

Dumb question:
How do you turn the AC on on the top vents only without getting it blowing to the feet as well? As per the HVAC controls, is that possible?

http://tweakers.net/ext/f/VQgIEoKc865QTpYBHSS82fHY/full.jpg

By "top" I am assuming you mean just the windshield vents? IIRC the only way to do that is to hit the defrost button (the button next to the A/C On button in the center).

By "top" I am assuming you mean just the windshield vents? IIRC the only way to do that is to hit the defrost button (the button next to the A/C On button in the center).

It might be what he meant. From reading it, it sounded like just having the AC to the vents directly facing the driver/passenger. I didnt think that could be isolated without having the footwell turned on as well.

That's what i meant, Once you replace the water valves, You'll be happy, I know the feeling of constant heat, I really hated it in the summer, Not complicated to change but kinda tight in space, It'a great time like mentioned above to replace the water hoses attached and the aux water pump too but not mandatory, It's just once you touch that stuff, The plastic is so brittle, It sometimes just breaks when you carefully disasimble, Just be cautious when pulling on the hoses if changing the valves only.

So after prodding yesterday, I noticed the heat isnt coming from the footwell vents. Might be a gush of heat from the engine bay through little openings underneath the dash.

The passenger side is fine.

Here is a picture of under the driver side. I am missing the plastic cover. I will replace that first before the heater control valve.

For those that have read this thread and are contemplating changing out the valves/pump, you'll first need to get the plastic cover off. The valve body itself is seated on three rubber pillars which probably have broken over time from vibration or from a tech prying up on the cover previously. The valve body is held to those pillars with three acorn nuts on top that the cover clips onto with C-clips into a groove in the nuts, two in front and one in the right rear. This is a very secure connection... so secure that is is common to break the cover trying to get it off or break the rubber pillars. Hopefully with this fore knowledge and careful lifting you won't break the cover but if you do, it's $27 from Gault and you spread the new C-clips a little so the pressure isn't so great and failure doesn't happen again. The cover isn't essential to anything but it would just be a missing engine bay detail.

Rubber pillars (vibration damper): # 64 11 1 390 940
Cover: # 64 11 1 383 499

Good post!
Mines had 2 broken vibration dampers when replaced.

another question in this area- what if your cabin filter housing is not attached perfectly? My heater control valve broke where the hose attachs to the pump. I just by-passed the pump with a "T" for now. However, I lost a screw that holds the cabin filter housing down. It fell down into the engine area. It didnt fall all the way out. In a hurry at the time, I just did the best I could getting back in the right spot but it didnt seal good. Now I noticed that my a/c is very cold when I first start up the car but after driving for a bit and the engine coming up to temp the a/c doesnt feel as cold and I get burst of warm air sometimes. Could this be the reason?

Im going to fix the cabin filter housing this weekend hopefully......

If the heater control valve is defective, should the heat be coming from the vents? Mine doesnt. Seems like its coming from crevices at the footwell and only car is in motion.

it's the control valve Tdot...

it's the control valve Tdot...
:)
I am not convinced. But knowing you, I will get the part. F-ck I am on a parts spending spree. When does it end?

$150 part, 30 minutes to install.

Of course my car is doing the same thing. BUT!

If I put the AC into AUTO mode, the heat at my feet is gone, So simple as that. Since I realized this, it is always on AUTO! It cools down nicely. No heat at my feet at all.

fwiw, Your just hiding the heat, It's still there, The AC can't fix a bad valve, If you didn't have freon or when the car cools from being on Auto, It will heat up fast and cause the ac to turn on and off often and when not needed because of the extra heat from the bad valves! Disconnect the compressor and put it on, auto, Without the shadowing cold air being on auto has no fix effect, You'll see it staying hot again, It's getting a mixture of heat and cold air now, That's a good tip but not a fix, When the valves go, They have to be replaced or fixed. E31="s Fix me-)

Couple of questions:

1. Shouldnt the heat come through the vents?
2. It gets hotter at high speed?
3. It is still get hot even on cool afternoons.

Dr. 8eight, do is the car still showing signs of bad heater valve?:)

No doc, Just trying to help...

No doc, Just trying to help...

Hope you didnt take my prodding the wrong way. Just want to be certain before waiting another 30 days for parts to get me.:mad

No, Not at all, You didn't receive your valve yet?