Shawn, in the last year I've replaced the heater valve on both
Vanagons. Once the valve is off, the amount of leaking seemed small
compared to the amount of heat that was coming out, in both cases.

Jim

On Aug 29, 2006, at 9:02 AM, Shawn Wright wrote:

> While replacing my rad, I also removing my front heater control
> valve, since
> I still seemed to be getting heat in the core even with the valve
> fully closed. I
> had already checked that the control cable was closing it all the way.
> Blowing in the valve shows that there is some leakage, but not a lot -
> blowing as hard as I can produces a barely noticeable amount of air
> coming
> out the other side. This doesn't seem like enough to cause the
> amount of
> heat I'm getting in the core - enough that it's uncomfortable to
> drive when
> hot out just from the air coming out of the vents with the fan off.
>
> I recall others commenting on this valve leaking. How much does it
> have to
> leak to be a problem? Is there some other explanation? Could
> reversing the
> flow from the engine cause the problem? (I may have done this in error
> when installing my TD).
>
> Thanks.
>
> Shawn Wright
> http://members.shaw.ca/vwdiesels
> '88 Westy 1.6TD 5 speed
> '85 Jetta Diesel 1.6NA
>