My sister in law has a ford puma. She recently had something fixed to do with the radiator of which she probably never knew the details. In the few weeks since it was done, the heater hasn't worked. The car works just fine and hasn't overheated or anything. I suspect an airlock in the heater.

What do I need to do to bleed the system properly?

[Edited on 7-1-2009 by smart51]

TIS doesn't mention anything specific for bleeding.
fill with heater set to hot, run for a couple of minutes, refit cap and run at 3K through two fan cycles

thanks.

Rather than revving the life out of it, although it may come to that, try loosening the upper hose leading to the heater core. Just enough to let any air out.
Also verify the coolant level is correct. It may already have burped some air out and be low.
Failing that, I've had to jack some cars up high enough to get the heater core lower than the hose and then rev it.
Good Luck.

It could be the heater control valve sticking, and needs replacing.
Its a common problem with the Puma.
I got one off Ebay in September for my daughters car.
Its easy to change over and only cost me about £20.
Keith.

Probably the valve as above and nothing to do with the rad repair. Very common.

You can get away with some clamps on the pipes (3) and not need to drain the system, just top up after.

adrian

Sister in law brought her car round today. There's plenty of water in the system and both pipes to the valve from the engine bay are mad hot. One from the valve to the heater is warm, the other fairly cool.

I got her to turn the heat dial hoping to hear the valve motor turn. Nothing. Is the problem likely to be the valve or the switch?

Also, the engine takes ages to start. It fires after a while but even then takes ages to start properly. What's that likely to be?

i'd go with heater control valve too, it's a common problem on fiesta, ka and puma, try to find one of the new HCV's mk8 i think they are, meant to have cured the problem. got mine from ebay about £25

another common problem is the coil pack failing, though i'm not sure if this would cause the poor starting