Polo Heater cold at tick over

[GrahamS]

The heater on my Polo goes cold when the engine is at tick over. It's warm-hot when the engine gets up to about 2000 revs, but goes cold at slower speads. Both radiator hoses are hot & the two heater hoses feeding the heater matrix feel hot. I've checked the water level and the system for leaks, it all looks ok.
The car is 1300 N reg, any ideas please?

[mudgy190]

No ideas, but a little empathy :D I have an R reg 1.4 cl and the heater is pretty useless...it never gets above lukewarm and the temp gauge normally fails to move from the left. Occasionally when I let it tick over for a while it will perambulate to the just under half way position, but the heater doesn't match its exertions, just blows off cold air...I am beginning to wish I'D NEVER BOUGHT THE CAR AS THERE ARE OTHER THINGS HAPPENING WHICH BODE ILL, BUT AS THIS IS A HEATER RELATED TOPIC i WON'T BORE YOU WITH THEM...iN ANY CASE NO ONE SEEMS TO HAVE AN ANSWER FOR YOUR PROBS SO WE'LL JUST HAVE TO FREEZE TOGETHER

[mjkelly]

Haven't had this on my polo(TOUCH-WOOD!!) but have experienced it in a couple of previous cars.
Normally the problem is down to poor circulation of the water and can be down to a number of things.
Alternator/water pump belt can be slack, check tension.
Hoses slightly blocked up with excessive gunk - try running a rad flush into the system, then renewing the water - this has done trick for me before.