the car is not presenting any heat to the passenger compartment…mechanics suspect problem with “blend doors”…seems expensive to remove the dashboard on an 18 year old vehicle…any other suggestions as to where to look or how…
Other possibility is the thermostat. If it does not open, the heated radiator fluid never flows into the heater core and there will be no heat.
Things just get expensive with an 18 y.o. car, especially a European luxury brand.
Does it blow ice cold or just lukewarm?
I would just change the thermostat first if it’s over 5 years old. Not very expensive.
In order for anyone to say anything at all you’d need to say how the mechanics arrived at the blend door.
I’d never say changing a thermostat is a bad idea. But its incredibly easy to check the actual coolant temperature. (And if it hangs in the 195-240 range when the car is all warmed up then its fine). Its even easier to find out if hot coolant is flowing through the heater core.
So maybe you could elaborate on the diagnosis.
If it turns into a dashboard dismantling event and you don’t want to deal with it you might look into something like this instead
Because of costs. If the above suggestions don’t work, I just live with it!
“Because of costs. If the above suggestions don’t work, I just live with it!”
Where I live this would not be an option. If hypothermia/frostbite complications didn’t kill you then the lack of any defroster/deicer action surely would. Trust me.
CSA
Did this car even have a blend door? Some of the older ones had a “valve” (the word’s not coming to me right now) that was operated by a cable. It opened/closed/moderated the coolant flow. Check the hoses from the engine to the firewall. If you’ve got one of those thing in-line, it’ll be dead easy to spot. If not, then you’re back to a blend door.