Heater Matrix Replacement Guide

[2_Door_fun 0]

Hi. The third bolt is a bugger.

 

Look on the firewall / bulkhead on the gearbox side of the bay. Its higher up the wall than you think. Took me a while to spot it.. Get your head in the gap above the Gbox and look up. You will spot it.

 

I got bored and ragged of teh arm and broke it. :oops: then I saw where it was and went back to the breakers for a Mk2 Golf item.... :D

[Joniboy 0]

Thanks for putting this guide up. I follwed it and managed to the the job in 4 and a half hours and now have nice heat, no steam and no smell from my heater system. Top job!

 

I did, however, find it very usefull to remove the centre consol heater ducting (just popped out) and the windscreen demister ducting (held in by 2 small screws to the underside of the dash) as this meant the matrix could be pulled out with ease.

Fitting it all back in is much MUCH easier! Reckon I could do the job in a couple of hours now I know how to do it! :)

 

Thanks again!

[Joniboy 0]

Need help..... Ive managed to finally get the heater box away from the car. took longer than I wanted but hey nothing wrong with taking your time. Anyway. New heater matrix in place only one question..

 

I have two parts that came with the new matrix that I cant work out where they go. a small white plastic er... object. and a rectangular piece of foam.

 

Any ideas????

 

I had these with my matrix and I didn't need to use either of them as there were simply no parts that matched them on the matiix. The gasket was too small to be used any where and the little nozzle, well god only knows.

 

I did wonder if these were applicable to Golfs? If you got the matrix from GS&F, the matrix is the same unit for MK3 and 4 golfs and all Corrados according to their parts numbers!

[NottsCounty 0]

Right, I think i've found the third bolt (down and behind the expansion tank) but i'm buggered if I can get at it.

 

Any ideas anyone??

[Joniboy 0]

Yeah, thats where it is. My missus (who has tiny hands) managed to get a 10mm ratchet spanner in there and work some magic. It took ages to get the nut off as the movment was minimal. She managed it though!

 

I didn't mind it taking long though; seeing her sprawled out over my engine bay was very nice indeed ;)

 

I tried to get my hand in the space and the only way I could was to go from beneath the coolant tank. However, once there I couln't bend my hand enough to get a hold of the spanner.

[tonedef 9]

Right, I think i've found the third bolt (down and behind the expansion tank) but i'm buggered if I can get at it.

 

Any ideas anyone??

 

I use a 1/4 drive ratchet, 11" wobbly extension and a deep 10mm socket, no problem!

[VEEDUBBED 0]

Happend to me yesterday while parked,all white steam inside engine bay,water pouring out from under the car...

Turns out that the plastic inlet pipe to matrix snapped clean off,i've done this job by the roadside before by stripping all the dash out,now i'm gonna try this method,however,my ride's now turbocharged again AND has an Audi ext.wastegate so re-finding those horrid 10mm nuts is going to be challenging...

[SteveVPK 0]

Thanks for posting up this thread it came in very handy today.... i have heat again :!:

 

took a few pic's as well that i might post later :wink:

[tonytiger 0]

SteveVPK, would be good if you could post your pics - I'm about to start on this job myself and the more pics I have for reference the better.

[SteveVPK 0]

Had a look through my photos and i didn't really take that many and even less would be of any use but hear you go... its pretty straight froward TBH

 

oh and clip from a manual as i had a bit of trouble trying to find all the screws to remove the center console so thought i might be helpful

[tonytiger 0]

Thanks for posting the pics - it's good to see exactly where the fixing points are for this.

 

I guess I've got no excuse for not getting on with this now (except the weather). So a 3 to 4 hour job - hopefully I'll manage it in under 8 then!

 

The only thing I'm unsure of now is whether or not I have to drain the coolant completely. The matrix is currently bypassed, so when I can connect it again is there any way of just topping the coolant up? Advise would be much appreciated.

[Joniboy 0]

Had a look through my photos and i didn't really take that many and even less would be of any use but hear you go... its pretty straight froward TBH

 

oh and clip from a manual as i had a bit of trouble trying to find all the screws to remove the center console so thought i might be helpful

 

Good stuff! :)

 

I had two clips on the other side of the fan arm ducting as well as the four you have kindly pointed out in the photo. Bit of a bi*ch to remove but do-able.

[SteveVPK 0]

arrr yes your right.. too many clips and screws !!

 

(Pic removed to avoid confusion)

[tonytiger 0]

Perhaps I was just too worried about breaking something, but I couldn't manage to get the heater box out with the dash in place.

So I've had to remove the dash - which wasn't actually too bad - not as bad as people make it sound (though I've not gotten as far as putting it all back again).

 

If I was starting again I'd start with the intention of taking the dash out - gives much more access to everything and allows you to tidy up any wiring if necessary too.

[C. Will Corrado G60 2 0]

Just remove a heater box from a 16V Corrado and it's one B***h of a job!!!!!!

 

It's easy but takes a while as they're so many bits to remove from the dash, there's a good guide on Corrado Club of Canada website. Just do a google search. and you'll find it.

[trev-b 0]

5/ Remove the knobby nut thing above the fan.

 

I can't find this nut, anyone got a pic of where it is?

[trev-b 0]

5/ Remove the knobby nut thing above the fan.

 

I can't find this nut, anyone got a pic of where it is?

[tonytiger 0]

I think it's a big plastic nut 'thing', which fits to a bolt that goes through the hole I've arrowed in the pic. As I say, I *think* that's the one. Possibly you've already figured this out by now.

[trev-b 0]

tonytiger, Cheers mate, yeah i got it and was about to put a pic up! I found it was a hell of a lot easier to just take the dash off then i could see what i was doing. Matrix was in good condition and it was the original one too!

 

Changed it anyway to be on the safe side.

[DaveVR6 0]

I had to do this job over the weekend, followed chuck's instructions and managed to do it (took 5 hours though!) without removing the dash.

 

Although I recon it is easier to unclip the fan arm from the heater unit, take the fan arm out first then remove the wide plastic air duct thats just behind the centre console. This way the heater unit is alot easier to get out and replace.

 

Also check the routing of the heater bowden cables when replacing the heater unit , make suer they arent too tight.

[lj16v 0]

i've also just done this little b@st£rd of a job, followed the wiki guide and had some good advice from people on here, it is do-able but it's fidelly especially if you have big hands, found i had to remove more bits than are mentioned in the guide to get in there at it, also there are some screws holding bits together that take a while to find, if you are carefull and take your time it is ok, definately took me more than the 3 hours stated in the guide, more like 8 to 10, you also may need to replace the foam on the flaps in the heater box as they get wet and the foam flakes off, also the carpet and sound deadening will get soaking wet when the matrix goes so will take a while to dry out, expect to have your car out of action for a few days or even a week. Worth doing the job yourself as it will cost a fortune at a garage and i can't see them being as careful as you'd like.

[Rpmayne 0]

I did it without taking the dash board out and have been driving the car while the heater box, centre dash etc has been removed. Just needed to plug the switches back in and leave the speedo working. Once I got the heater box back in I still left the carpet etc out for abit to make sure everything was really dry. Sound deadening took ages (days).

 

Been two weeks in total including getting the foam, broken bits of trim etc. Was nice to have the time to do it properly without rushing to get the transport back.

[red_baron 0]

I'm stuck... arghhhh :x

 

I've been patiently following the guide and everything was running smoothly until I came to undoing the three nuts on the engine bay side of things. The upper one and the one by the expansion tank didn't cause me any problems, but the lower one of the two (photo attached) just won't come undone. To add to it, the whole thing just keeps turning - I think it must have come loose in the heater box itself.

 

I've tried everything - WD40 (lots of), mole grips, Dremel, swearing etc. etc. Without this coming off I'm kind of stumped.

 

Anyone got any suggestions - or know of any garages in the Manchester area that can be trusted to carry on where I'm very tempted to leave off? I'm off to China with work next week and don't have much time to spend on it now...

 

Cheers,

Ian

[DaveVR6 0]

Yup, had the same problem myself. It was a 2 man job to get off.

 

Loads of WD40 on it then its worth putting a socket on it and givin it a few good bashes with a hammer to see if that frees it, failing that.....

 

One person needs to literally get into the passenger footwell and feel for the other side of the bolt, its got a really thin hex nut on it which is right upagainst the blukhead, you will need to clamp it with an adjustable spanner or summet while the other person slowly turns the nut thats in the engine bay.

 

Its a real pain case the nut in the footwell is extremely difficult to get good grip on.

 

Best of luck!

[Rpmayne 0]

If the nut spins with the thread all it does in undo the other side of the thread which is self-tapped into the heater box. Keep twisting it until the box comes loose, remove the box then you will be able to see the other side of the bolt as DaveVR6 said.