Hi basically im having problems with my heater in the car, its not blowing hot air !!, and when you turn the knob from cold to hot its like its not opening anything at all, its like the cable is siezed or something, anyway i want to eliminate this problem 1st before checking anything else, if helps my car temperture gauge when the engine is hot stays half way, so surely not thermostat, and im sure the heater matrix is ok, so back onto the main subject regarding theese 2 cogs that are attatched to the heater control cable, where are they and can somebody kindly send me any pictures of them, ive looked down by the clutch pedal as thats where i was told where they were, but i cant see the 2 cogs !!! am i going mad, apparantly when i find them im supposed to turn the smaller one so it opens the bigger one and i should then get hot air, please , please any help and i cant find them ,and im getting blooming cold !! lol, my car incase its diferent to other mondeos is a 1997 st24 hatchback..

Hope to hear sooon from somebody and thankyou from Brian.

brian, November 2008

(Modified from my answer to a similar question)

Hopefully you'll find that the cable is kinked behind the control knob and it's quite an easy fix to straighten it, once you can get to it.

Check both ends of the cable by first removing your radio and looking up behind the control knob with a torch for one end. The other end is connected to a lever affixed to centre housing to the left of the clutch pedal(Mine's RH drive, so it may be on passenger side in LHD). Shouldn't be hard to spot although you'll need to have your head in the floor well and possibly a torch to see it!

Make sure this lever isn't jammed, or any fix will be very temporary(try and use your other hand to move control knob at the same time as one hand moves the lever to avoid possibility of further damage, or kinking)!

The bad news is you need to first remove the console around gearstick to then get the centre radio console out to carefully straighten the cable just behind where it attaches to the control knob(FWIW, I removed the radio console without removing the lower console but this requires some twisting of the plastic and you risk breaking the console, or scratching the steering column doing it this way).

Anyway, I'm reasonably certain that you'll find the inner wire of your control cable has simply developed a nasty kink behind the control knob(from forcing it when the flap at the other end has stuck after a long period on the cold setting), like mine did, which means it isn't opening the flap enough to let hot air through the system.

The plastic cable attachment to the control knob looks very flimsy, so the inner cable will need to be straightened with great care but I managed it last weekend and the fix worked fine.

Alternatively, if you just wish to bodge the heating full on through the winter, the cable at the lever end can be removed easily. Pull the cable away from the lever towards the clutch pedal(It should just pop out of the lever) and then come up with a way of sticking the lever in the warm position(it naturally springs back to cold).

Bearcub, November 2008