Technical Screen demist

[snowglowjoe]

My daughter in law has recently bought a Punto MkII (2002) as her first car.

All is fine except she cannot direct heat to the windscreen regardless of the position of the heater controls. The recent cold weather has obviously exaggerated the problem. Any suggestions to a cure?I'm assuming whichever heater flap directs the fan stream to the windscreen is jammed? But,what do I know, never experienced this problem on any other Punto owned by my family.

All other exits from heater control working fine - face vents, floor well, warm and toasty. Fan ok

Any help greatly appreciated

 

[maggers]

Does the knob turn to all positions? If so, it's unlikely to be a jammed flap but more likely a link or cable come off. Have a look under the dash either side for links/cables whilst someone turns the knob and see if you can make sense of it. I'd go and look on my daughters' but it's too cold. Does your avatar relate to your location, in which case you may not be too far from me and i'll have a look.

 

[snowglowjoe]

Does the knob turn to all positions? If so, it's unlikely to be a jammed flap but more likely a link or cable come off. Have a look under the dash either side for links/cables whilst someone turns the knob and see if you can make sense of it. I'd go and look on my daughters' but it's too cold. Does your avatar relate to your location, in which case you may not be too far from me and i'll have a look.

Thanks for the quick reply maggers!

Heater distribution knob turns fine to all positions. When in either of the two windscreen positions, heat seems to flow from everywhere except the screen vents. How do I access the cables you mentioned? Working on memory at the moment, as I live in Brum and the d -in- law (and Punto live in West Brom!

 

[Brendan W]

I second Maggers. Cable adrift or the bracket that fixes the outer part is broken. Have to take the centre console out.

 

[maggers]

Thanks for the quick reply maggers!

Heater distribution knob turns fine to all positions. When in either of the two windscreen positions, heat seems to flow from everywhere except the screen vents. How do I access the cables you mentioned? Working on memory at the moment, as I live in Brum and the d -in- law (and Punto live in West Brom!

No worries, although I'm not usually this quick! Hopefully, if you just have a look each side from the footwell upwards you should see something. My son will be back later and he has a MK2 Haynes manual somewhere so i'll have a look in that.

 

[snowglowjoe]

Thanks Brendan - by centre console, do you mean the console containing the heater controls, or the floor mounted console with gear stick? - or both!

 

[snowglowjoe]

Cheers Maggers! Think my son has manual somewhere- strange that as I seem to be the one carrying out most of the repairs!

 

[snowglowjoe]

Finally got around to attempt a repair - you were both right gents! After removing the heater control console, there was a little too much slack in the heater distribution cable, although it was secure at both ends.Not sure why, but the cable appeared slightly too long. A strategically placed clip to put a little more 'bend' in the cable and secure it , cured the problem. Would not want to carry out this repair on a regular basis, but the end result was worth the swearing. Thanks for your advice Maggers and Brendan.