Hi. I have an R reg felicia diesel. Whenever the temperature drops, the fan heater takes an age to get started. After all the rain we have had recently, it doesnt seem to come on at all. I have checked the fuses, and there is nothing wrong there. What could the cause of the problem be, and how could I fix it?

it is eather the heater resistor or the fan in heater box

Check the brushes of heater fan motor.

I'm not clear; is the problem with the fan motor, or with a lack of hot air?

Issues with the fan motor are covered. Diesels do take a while to warm up and evolve hot air through the heater in this sort of weather.

It's the fan motor. I get hot air through the vents if I am moving, but the fan doesn't run until the car has been running for a few minutes. It only happens when the weather is cold and is much worse when it is cold and wet.

My diesel also started doing this the other week. It sort of gurgles as if there's water milling around in it, then works as normal after I've driven a few hundred yards. It stopped doing it lately, so I'm content for the minute. Still the best heater on a car to date IMHO.... and its even better on the 1.6!

It's going back a few years so the details are sketchy but mine used to cut out or not work at all sometimes and just cleaning up the spring loaded brushes in the motor (in the plastic casing at the back of the engine bay) got it going again. It's worked ever since and that has to be 6 years or more.

It used to be comedy as a good sharp right turn would get it spinning. Other times the speed would be going up and down depending on which way the car was turning, whether the road was uneven etc.

Hi all

Finally got around to fixing this.

Pop bonnet open. Remove the foam seal around the grill under the windscreen. Pull out plastic mesh panel.

Just enough room to reach inside and turn the fans by hand. Rotated the fans back and forth for a minute or two. Put everything back together. Turn ignition to position 1 and hey presto.... force 12 huuricane through the vents. Took 10 minutes of working blind.

Haynes people would roll over reading your way to reach the fan..

But I guess you understand that you did only a provisionally repair.

I looked in the haynes manual and it looked to be a 5 spanner job involving removing the strut brace. Im more of a 2 to 3 spanner kind of guy, and could not get the strut brace to budge last time I tried. After reading up on here I figured out how to get to the necessary parts via the intake. Might not be a premanent fix, but it seems to working better than ever (for now) and if it fails again, its pretty easy to try again. Just needs to see me through the winter.

I didn't take out the brace or completely remove the fan unit either. I think there was just enough room to partially withdraw the motor shaft from one end - just enough to clean the muck out of the brushes and comutator. Like you say though, it's working again and no great hardship to do it again next time it stops. Bet you're glad it's going now - been a bit nippy.