S-Type - Dual Zone Climate Playing Up

S-Type - Dual Zone Climate Playing Up

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356Speedster

Original Poster:

2,293 posts

238 months

Tuesday 30th May 2006
quotequote all
OK, here's one for you.

A few days ago, whilst driving my '99 3.0 S-Type, I felt the cabin wasn't warming up very well, despite me having the A/C off and the temp set to 27 degrees. This morning, I thought I'd play around a bit...

I had the A/C off, the direction set to screen & floor and temp on Hi. After 6 miles, I was feeling the odd blast of hot air, but mostly my feet were freezing and there was a cold draught up my trouser leg! My wife, however, was starting to complain that she thoguht I was trying to boil her!!

Then, I set the direction to dashboard face vents only and ran my hand across the vents.

The left-most passenger vent (by the door) was boling hot as was the centre passenger vent. However, the centre driver's side vent was only luke warm and the right-most driver's side vent (by the door) was freezing cold.

When I set the passenger side temp to 24 degrees and the driver's side to 29, the passenger side acted properly and cooled down across the 2 vents, whilst the driver's side centre vent went as cold as the door vent.

Has anyone experienced this before? I checked the hand book and can't see mention of any fuses that look like they may control a single side of the car's heating. I've checked the bottom radiator hose and the valve that then sends hot water down 2 pipes to the cabin (L&R I assume) and they're both hot. Anything else anyone can think of?

Any advice will be much appreciated!

Thanks,

Mark

Phil Hopkins

17,111 posts

224 months

Tuesday 30th May 2006
quotequote all
Air-con might need gassing, or de-odourising?

356Speedster

Original Poster:

2,293 posts

238 months

Tuesday 30th May 2006
quotequote all
Nope, there's nothing wrong with the A/C, it's the heating. I'm only getting heat on one side of the car (passenger side), not the other.

Any ideas what would only allow heat onto the passenger side, leaving the poor driver (me!) to freeze their butt off? Well, almost, I still have a heated seat to warm me up!!

Mark

melhook

199 posts

222 months

Tuesday 30th May 2006
quotequote all
With the risking of stating the obivous, please check that the expansion tank is topped up correctly, as the s type behaves very strangley when the coolant level is low, believe it or not the heater will not blow hot air!!. There are 3 possiable faults with your heating system, having worked at a jaguar dealership for 13+ years. the first and most common fault is the heater valve, which has two seperate feeds into the car, one for the o/s and one for the n/s. The other possible faults are related, being a broken/ corroded wire from the A/C control panel to the heater valve,( possible ) the other cause could be the fact that the A/C panel is not sending a signal ( unlikely ).
To check the heater valve is a little tricky unless you are component with a multi meter. you need to probe the 3 pin connector while it is still connected to the valve, which is located in the engine bay, o/s/f, bolted to the fan cowling. you should have a permanent 12v on the middle wire, and on the two outside wires, they will change from 12 volts to 0 volts, when the heating is switched from full hot to full cold. sounds complicated but the hardest bit is actually getting to the plug !! its easier to disconnect it first, then connector your meter, then plug it back in, it is best to do this while the engine is cold.

356Speedster

Original Poster:

2,293 posts

238 months

Tuesday 30th May 2006
quotequote all
Thanks for the tips, I think I'll have to pull the old multi-meter out and see what's what....

As the valve down near the passenger side chassis leg is sending hot water to both pipe, it's not coolant (max'd) or the valve that's the issue. As I said, I get hot air come thru' the passenger side vents, just not thru' the driver's side.

The climate panel in the car looks fine too - no issues, all buttons work and when I press the different directional & recirculation buttons, I can here stuff oving in the dash! Although that said, a dodgy wire may be upsetting things, you never know.

I'll try the multi-meter on the rad switch, then if that fails, I guess it's out with the centre console :-( Not looking forwards to the latter.

Thanks,

Mark

melhook

199 posts

222 months

Tuesday 30th May 2006
quotequote all
the s type has two seperate coolant feeds into the cabin, although the pipes sometimes appear hot, they are not actually supplyimg hot coolant to both sides of the cabin, which is why you are geting hot air one side, and cool air the other. i would be loking at the vavle, sometimes a gentle tap on top of the valve can release the sticking flap, and work for a while.

Tony427

2,873 posts

240 months

Wednesday 31st May 2006
quotequote all
I had this problem and posted on it some time ago, but without such a good and knowledgable response.

My expansion tank had failed also at the time and once I repaired that, the heating isue seemed to get a little better as a small amount of heat was being directed into the passenger footwell but it still got a bit parky for the poor passenger.

Yesterday evening whilst out in the car the Mrs put the passenger side heating on max and I told her that she'd be lucky as it wasn't working that well. After a mile or so the heat suddenly starting belting out so whatever air lock etc had been restricting the flow must have cleared itself.

Now only need to get the air con regassed........

Cheers,

Tony