Arghh! Steam coming out of heater, heater matrix?

[lj16v 0]

Hi all,

 

right this is what happened; put my car away last night (in garage) after work, all fine. Had to go back to garage to put something in there and noticed that the inside of my car was steamed up, weird i thought, but just left it.

This morning i dried the inside of the screen with a cloth, then when i started the car i put the screen blower on (hot and no. 4 power) to clear the remainig haze, at this point i heard a burble/ water noise (kind of like water boiling (the car was cold)). Again though weird!! so poped the bonnet to check expansion tank, it was about 15 to 20mm down on normal position (checked last weekend, probably done 80 miles all week) so i topped it up and headed off to work. Drove 1/4 mile with the screen blower on still then it really started to steam out of the vents etc, stopped the car turned the blower off and turned temp round to cold, opened windows, all calmed down. Drove to my garage about 3 miles away as the car warmed up there was more and more steam (windows open!!).

 

Talked to the guy at my garage, local garage specialising in german cars, steve has a MK1 and definately seems to know his onions. He wasn't sure weather it is the heater matrix or weather water has got into the heater fan intake in the scuttle, i have an SWG scuttle cover fitted and he wasn't sure if this could cause water to get traped somewhere in the scuttle, so he advised me to take off the scuttle cover and check for water in that area before he booked it in.

 

Drove to my workshop (about 4 miles, so 7 miles in total this morn since topping up exp' tank) was just about to take off the sccuttle cover when i saw that the level in the expansion tank was down by 25 to 30mm !!!

 

Question is; dose this point towards the heater matrix rather than water in the heater intake?

 

Also remembered that a couple of weeks ago i had a soggy carpet in the passengers footwell, just checked now and it is really wet!!

 

Think i will take the scuttle cover off and check that anyway.

 

Looked at the knowledge base, heater matrix looks like bit of a hassle...

 

Thanks in advance, laurence.

[KADVR6 0]

100% the heater matrix, it cant be anything else with what you have described. it's also one of the worst jobs you can do on a corrado :lol:

 

this will help ya though lorry.

 

http://www.the-corrado.net/wiki/index.p ... eplacement

 

 

karl

 

also use the search if ya get stuck, as its been discussed s**t loads

[Goldie 2]

I dread the day this happens to mine!!!!!

 

Good luck getting it sorted..

[Foggystorm 0]

It is the heater matrix defo, where abouts are you from, cause there is a good VW main service centre round this way that I reacon would do it quite cheap (going by how much they charged for replacing my sunroof motor etc etc), I can give u there number and you can try ringing them for a quote

[Rpmayne 0]

This has happened to mine, got the air box out without removing the dash yesterday which was good, just had to take everything else out.

 

Get your carpet out asap, there's loads of sound deadening between the floor and the carpet that was absolutely saturated. That took a while because I had to remove the centre console, rear seat bottoms, front seats, door sill strips etc.

 

Just to save you searching, the things which slowed me up:

 

Rear seat bottoms are latched in at the front, just wiggle them about and pull up. Then then slide forward and out.

 

Handbrake handle cover. There is a little latch on the underneath of the handle closest the centre console. I used a screwdriver to move it out away from the handle and it then slides off. If yours is leather the covering need rolling back to see it.

 

Good luck.

[lj16v 0]

Thanks guys for the advice, will be going into the garage this week as i just don't have to much time on my hands at the mo'. However i think i will take some of the bits out of the way as you sugest and also follow the wiki article so some of the fidely bits are done and i'm not paying them to unscrew panels etc.

will give me a push to clean the carpet!!

 

Any ideas how much the parts should cost??

 

on the up side i polished the car yesterday with auto glym gold (seal + protect) and it has come up really really shiney!!

 

Thanks again, LJ.

[Rpmayne 0]

I've just got some prices back from VW for mine.

 

The 3 control cables £32.00 (VW)

Matrix £85.00 (GPC)

Heater controls £180 (VW)

Heater box £205 (VW)

 

When I took mine apart I found some of the plastic clips had broken on the heater controls so they need replacing.

 

The internal flaps of the air box are covered with foam and its saturated and flaked off in mine. Worth getting yours checked when its out, trying to find some foam at the moment.

[A7 UFO 0]

http://www.car-partsonline.com/Heater_Matrix_35.asp

[Supercharged 2]

Errr, yeah I wouldn't recommend getting a second hand matrix even tho a second hand genuine one would be better than a pattern part...

 

IMO thats worse than fitting second hand brakes, new VW parts come with a 2 year warranty and VW will cover the labour if it does go... 3 months warranty on a part that takes 10 hours to fit is not worth it not to mention dangerous!

[Rpmayne 0]

Yer I went for the genuine VW matrix from GPC for peace of mind, don't want to strip the car again in a hurry. Exactly the same part, £85 delivered from GPC or £115+VAT from a UK VAG dealer.

[lj16v 0]

Ended up doing this myself......

All done now, pain to do but got there in the end.

 

cheers for all the advice,

Laurence.

[HiAsAKite 0]

When mine went I ended up with 90 degree engine coolant on my legs..... oh and not being able to see where I was going thanks to the steam....

 

 

if happens...turn the engine off right away so it doesn't run without coolant... then ASAP get al the carpets out and dry them thoroughly, and try and use a hairdryeer or something to dry out all the nooks and crannies....

 

rinsing them may help as coolant can contains glycerol (I think?) which is hydroscopic...ie it absorbs moisture from the air- so if you don't get it out they will be forever damp...

 

Once you've done that you can bypass te matrix, fill the system up and the car should be perfectly driveable (albeit with no heater!) ...unless the coolant also soaked your immobilser as happened to me..

 

And yeah...changing its a real PITA.. I wimped out and payed the Phirm to do it when they did my timing chains... (v. good job they did too...thanks Tim :) )

[BigTartanJudge 0]

Hmmmn, this is what I can't understand with mine tbh, was sure it was the heater matrix, with the amount of sticky water soaked into the passenger side footwell and towards the back seat. The coolant level is also low in the expansion tank and the level warning light illuminates after 10 mins of driving. Have checked all the ducting (cleared of debris) and door seal / membranes (intact). No steam coming through the vents in dash etc either but occasionally the windscreen does steam up badly.

 

I cleaned and dried the mats and soaked up the excess water in the footwells with newspaper and then disposed of the sodden paper and left her to sit. Haven't driven her in ages, then checked the interior passenger side last night and it's all bone-dry now ?

 

How is this possible, is it just because the system is not pressurised and the matrix is not under pressure so won't be able to leak into the interior at the moment ? Will it just start to leak again and the interior passenger side become sodden again if I start to drive it again now ?

 

Any help / advice appreciated !