First drive - AC on, heat coming out drivers foot well

[Caryalon]

Took the car (2012 35i) on my first drive today. One thing I noticed is that the air in the drivers foot well is burning hot (even with AC on).

I'm thinking it's the heater control valve. I have a code - A6D2 - Water valve, Driver's side.

Any thoughts or experience with this?

[andrewwynn]

Flap for hot/cold but also the heater valves important. Does your scanner read that data?

[Caryalon]

There are a ton of flap values that are reviewable - should I be looking at just foot well flap? Shouldn't th foot well be open but delivering cold air?

[pshovest]

If footwell vent is hot with temp controls set to minimum (60F?) and AC off, then I think it's safe to say the drivers side heater valve is leaking or stuck open due to debris. This assumes your outdoor temps are above 60F, so IHKA isn't calling for heat, and there are no other problems. My understanding is the heater valves need 12v to stay closed, so an electrically disconnected valve will be wide open putting full hot water flow to the heater core.

[Caryalon]

Ok - I drove with temp control set to 60, 73 outside, with fan on and off, getting hot air in footwell. So I am more convinced it’s the heater control valve.

[Caryalon]

Replaced the heater control valve, seems to have resolved the issue - went for a drive, cool air coming out in driver's foot well, code has not reappeared.

I did the auto bleed procedure - seemed to work fine, except it ran for almost 30 minutes, until I restarted the engine. Any ideas why it would just keep running?

Thanks!

[andrewwynn]

How did you initiate the bleed procedure? It may not have a timeout and runs until you take the key out or start the engine.

I did a bleed on a customer car and I seem to recall I thought it was going to stop on its own and didn't.

[Caryalon]

I initiated it based on instructions on YouTube/here/ other forums -turn on ignition, lower temp to highest setting, fan speed to lowest settings g, press accelerator down and hold for 10-12 seconds.

This started the pump running.

The same instructions said it would run 10 minutes or so. Mine kept going...