I just bought a 1996 A6 and the heat does not blow hot at all. the control unit seems to work and the it registers on the guage seems to be working, Has anyone else had this problem. It's winter here and it tends to get COLD and I need help.

 

Make shure the water level isok in the tank ..on my A6 there is a bleed screw at the pipe going through the firewall

 

After 10-15 minutes of driving is the dashboard temp gauge needle reading around 40-45% of full scale?

 

Thermostat ?

 

if it was the thermostat, that would mean that the stat is stuck on the closed position... correct? which would mean no circulation of coolant, which would mean an eventual overheat... somone correct me if im wrong though

Is your car overheating?

 

If the thermostat is stuck closed the car would overheat. If it is stuck fully open, the engine would not reach full operating temps and the flowing coolant would not get very hot. When coolant does not get hot, heaters don't blow hot air. If it is stuck partially open, you may get some heating but the heated air cannot get as hot as it would if thermostat was operating properly.

 

Thanks for all your answers, I have put a new OEM thermostat and heatercore in the car ( I replaced because I changed the dashboard PO had bad kids) The blower works and the water level is right where it's supposed to be. I am leaning towards the control unit because the air is only blowing from the center vents no matter what button you push, Has anyone else ever had a simular problem with the control unit? Can it be tested? Can it be rebuilt?

 

Are you sure all the little control wheels at each vent are in the full open position?

 

Yeah I did, I actually got the heat working by switching the control unit from my 97 avante wagon, the heat works but the directional control does not although everything in the wagon worked fine, so we know the control unit is good . I suspect that replacing the control unit will help with the heat and there must be a directional control system which is controlled by the unit itself. Has anyone had a problem like this? is there a wiring diagram or flow chart available?