[tnhillbilly]

Had a decent day at work today. Had to go meet a guy after work about 30 miles away. On the way back home the heater control valve broke apart and the van got a little warm. :evil: Well, had to call for some tools and took the heater hoses off the valve and put them together. Coming on to the house the air quit working. :evil: :evil: Now I have to figure out what happened to it. It lost all the gas so it is a pretty good leak. Some days you have to wonder what you have done to deserve what you get. :whack: Well on the bright side, at least I woke up this morning and I am still breathing. Sorry for the rant but I just had to vent a little.

 

[Matrixx]

Hi THB

It does seem to come in waves doesn't it? I have had days like those as well. I just push through it, and learn from the experience. Vehicles are vehicles.

 

[astro355]

Just makes me wonder why they made those valve out of plastic, composite, whatever. Things that break like that that would leave you on the side of the road should be a little sturdy.

 

[Matrixx]

I was lucky with mine when it blew. I just shut the van off started walking away from it and then I heard a "loud boom", looked back, and saw "all" of my anti-freeze running down the street. I couldn't believe how much was lost in such a short time (almost all of it).

Once I fixed mine, I had to add another 4 liters of anti-freeze and 3 liters of water, that's how much I lost in just seconds and it wasn't even running at the time (pressurized, but nor running). I've added some reinforcement to my new heater control valve, hopefully it won't blow like that again.

 

[astro355]

I was lucky with mine when it blew. I just shut the van off started walking away from it and then I heard a "loud boom", looked back, and saw "all" of my anti-freeze running down the street. I couldn't believe how much was lost in such a short time (almost all of it).

Once I fixed mine, I had to add another 4 liters of anti-freeze and 3 liters of water, that's how much I lost in just seconds and it wasn't even running at the time (pressurized, but nor running). I've added some reinforcement to my new heater control valve, hopefully it won't blow like that again.

Yep, it will do that. You have to remember that when you first shut your vehicle down, the antifreeze gets hotter (and builds more pressure) before it gets colder. But at least you were not running down the highway when it happened.

 

[tnhillbilly]

I was lucky with mine when it blew. I just shut the van off started walking away from it and then I heard a "loud boom", looked back, and saw "all" of my anti-freeze running down the street. I couldn't believe how much was lost in such a short time (almost all of it).

Once I fixed mine, I had to add another 4 liters of anti-freeze and 3 liters of water, that's how much I lost in just seconds and it wasn't even running at the time (pressurized, but nor running). I've added some reinforcement to my new heater control valve, hopefully it won't blow like that again.

Yep, it will do that. You have to remember that when you first shut your vehicle down, the antifreeze gets hotter (and builds more pressure) before it gets colder. But at least you were not running down the highway when it happened.

Yeah, my van got a little hot and the driver got hotter. LOL. Bad thing was there was nowhere to pull over right at the moment. Pulling off the edge of a two-lane nowadays is asking to get run over. It only took a gallon to fill it back up and it did fine coming home so I don't think it hurt anything. Where did yours burst at? Mine cracked open where the rear heat hooks in. My rear heat wasn't that great to begin with and I replaced the valve with the 4 port and done away with the rear heat. I hope maybe it will last another 13 years. The ac quitting was the compressor. It blew out where it is put together. It's getting warm here in Tn. now so I guess I will have to hunt one pretty soon. I guess a bad day once in a while just keeps you in check.

 

[Matrixx]

Hi astro355

That's for sure, Iwas lucky their.

Hi tnhillbilly

I dread the thought of it blowing out on the highway. Now I know it's a problem, I have taken all the precautions necessary to make that doesn't happen. I do a lot of Up country driving and go into some pretty barren places. When my heater core valve blew, it split right in half at the seam.

The top and bottom are joined in the middle with some epoxy or some kind of glue, that's what failed on mine. How does the oil look and smell now tnhillbilly? That's a good indicator on how far the heat was able to reach the more. If it looks and smells like it normally does, then the chances are pretty good nothing much happened to the motor when yours blew.