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i would have to wonder if the reward is worth the risk if you know there are obvious issues, but I'm no electrician so i cannot say for sure

 

Does the heater in your car work? The 850 heater is brilliant when working correctly, why are you thinking of using a plug in one?

 

The car's built in heater pumps out plenty of heat and all of the controls work brilliantly, but I'm dealing with a slight heater core leak right now and I would prefer not to use the heater. When I turn the heater on full, there is a slight syrup smell for like the first 5-10 seconds of operation that soon goes away and is undetectable until the next time I initially turn on the heater a couple of hours later. The leak can't be very bad, because the heater smells only a bit when first activated and my car loses maybe a cup of coolant a year at most. My car's carpet has no wet spots and doesn't mist or collect coolant residue on any vents or windows. Basically, I'm not worried about the car, but what I am worried about is myself! I certainly do not want to get poisoned by some coolant vapors escaping into the cabin, so I decided to just leave my heater turned off until I get around to repairing it. In the meantime, I'll wear a coat and try out this little supplemental heater to take the edge off of the cold.

I do agree, though, the heat output of the climate control's heater is massive!

P.S. Nice looking car, Brick850!

 

It is always a very bad idea to fit a higer rating fuse.
The fuse is rated according to the wires. If you fit a higher fuse the wires will get hotter than normal and yes your car can catch fire!

 

This is an off-topic answer, but a 150 watt heater puts out so little heat that you're really just wasting your time worrying about it. It's probably about 2% as much heat as you get out of the real heater. Or, in other words, just fix the heater. The "removability" of the heater core is pretty friendly, based on RSPI's movies. I haven't done one on a volvo. I'm more used to other cars that take 10 or 12 hours to do a heater core.

 

I have to admit myself, I used FCP's video to change the heater core, and having never done one, it took me less than 90 minutes.


However.......make sure you clamp off the heater hoses really well. Unlike myself, that had to mop approx. 5 litres of coolant out of the front footwells. And it soaked into the foam covering like a sponge and I had to cut it out of the vehicle and replace it.


The second 850 I did the heater core in, took me 60 minutes and no mess, because I had drained the coolant to change the thermostat.


Thanks for the compliment!

 

I'm trying to decide if this is funny or not. Many of us get a whiff of coolant when we turn the system on. Yes, this is because the heater core has a minor leak, and yes this can go on for years before the core really starts leaking.

However, do you know that the coolant flows through the core whether you use the heat or not? So, the danger is not so much of if you get a whiff of coolant when you turn the heat on, as much as it is if the core burst and leaks all the coolant out and you overheat the car.

Also, the coolant usually leaks under the carpet, not on it so you will never know how bad the leak is unless you pull the carpet and insulation up to check the floor board.

Lastly, there is a guy on eBay that sells the cores for $38 shipped. Claims they are better than OEM. I installed one on a car for a friend. Worked very well.

 

OP: I too thought you were joking.. so did you fry the harness?

What scutyde and rspi said..

 

Actually, I returned the heater before I did any damage.

Guess I'll be fixing my heater core soon.

I wasn't kidding about breathing the antifreeze fumes. Antifreeze is toxic stuff, and I want to avoid exposing myself to it as much as possible.

 

This could be the result of a car heater mod...

 

Hahaha, well, I'm glad that didn't happen to me!

The cigarette lighter auxiliary heater is now safely sent back to Advance auto, and the 10 amp fuse has been put back into the fusebox.

No more worries about fires caused by that little thing!

 

LOL, My sister had a bad heater core in a Durango she had. She was driving around with a electric heater in her truck for a few months. Scary!

Volvo's have enough fire issues.

 

I've had zero problems since I eliminated the heater core completely and converted to a stove heater. Works best with a wagon as you can carry more wood.

I followed RSPI's youtube video on how to.
.

 

You're responding to a year old thread.