Heater Bypass

I drive an old banger. Most of you will be familiar with me arriving in a beat-up Granada - usually with something or other wrong with it. Often something serious.

Firstly, I should say that I am completely comfortable with this. I like driving an old car, it liberates me in so many ways. My car repayments do not dominate my life, the inevitable scratches do not stress me and if the worst comes to the worst, I just get another one.

OK, justification complete.

The current serious ailment with my current Granada is that the heater matrix is broken. This means that a shower of water sprays over my legs as I drive - or it did. My garage man told me that to fix it would be 300 pounds or more, and that in such an old car, the change in water pressure might compromise the head gasket. I don't really understand in the proper sense - but I see that this would be yet more expense.

I'm a little annoyed with this blog entry, because I set out to say something very simple, and seem to have been caught up in the preamble.

So, to cut a long story short, he has bypassed my heater matrix. This means that I have no heater in the car, but as compensation, my legs are no covered by a fine mist of engine water either. It feels like a fair trade-off to me - or it will until a cold night comes along.

At present, my heat setting is set like this:

When it gets cold, I reckon I will move this dial to the warm position, thus:

My question is simply this: Why will I do this, even though I know for sure that no heat will arrive as a result?

Comments

[Storge]

Well you see, its all got to do with teleconetics, sounds like a job for the 3/8th's.

[Liz Marshall]

So, has it stopped you misting up as well?
When we were kids we used to keep the outside toilet warm with an oil lamp ... well, maybe not quite the suitable alternative.
You'll have to get all your friends to look round their local scrappies for the part you need, or is it the fitting that costs?

[Aaron]

may i suggest eating a few cans of beans before setting out to drive on a cold night - that'll definitely keep the car lovely and cosy