Heater matrix help.

Hi.
I've got a 96 300 tdi disco with a leak ( nothing new there ). It's in the drivers foot well, it's aslo started to lose coolant so I'm thinking it must be the heater matrix. The thing is that my car has air con, the haynes manual just says don't do this job on an air con car, take it to land rover. Has any one do this job ? Is the heater matrix different for an air con model ? There on eBay for £50 ish. The air con doesn't work so would it be Easyer just to take it out ? Don't realy need it in Scotland !!!! Any help would be great thankyou.

I helped a mate swap out a heater matrix a couple of years ago. Nightmare!

The job in itself is relatively straight forward, the pain is taking the dash out. The n when you get right down to it, there is a strong possibility the problem is the O rings not the matrix itself which rather adds insult to injury. A lot of time to replace parts that cost about £1.00

Thanks mate. There's always something to look forward to !

Basically what Classic Kev said...nightmare!!!

I just did mine on a 97 300tdi with air-cond 2 months back.

1) MAKE SURE its the matrix that's leaking or you'll be spending hours (or days) of labour for nothing.

2) once confirmed matrix leaking, or even the pipes around the matrix is leaking, start taking steering wheel, speedo pod, glove box, passenger airbag, center console, and the whole dash out. Haynes manual actually do tell you how to take the dash out, but you'll need to go through a few different sections.
(take extra care when removing the steering wheel & the Rotary Coupler right behind it as the wires within the rotary coupler can be damaged quite easily if it comes apart)

3) once dash is out, you'll need to disconnect 2 sets of piping from the engine bay before the heater/air-cond unit can come out. 1st set is the water pipes (below fuel filter on the right from front of vehicle)(rubber hose with hose clamps), 2nd set is the air-cond pipes at further right of the water pipes (square-ish alloy block with 2 x bolts).

You may want to connect up one of the water inlet or outlet with an air pump to clear out as much coolant as possible. Otherwise, you may spill more coolant onto the carpet while removing the heater unit.

4) once all pipes disconnected at engine bay, carefully remove the heater unit, as the in-cab piping comes out together with the heater unit. You do not want to bend them.

5) you may now remove the heater matrix from the heater unit and replace it.

6) re-installation is the reversal of the above, with the addition of topping up coolant from the thermostat housing.

This is not a job for the faint hearted. It will take you half a day just to remove the heater unit, and re-installation is even longer.

Good luck!!!

*very sorry for not able to be in exact detail for the step by step guide on dash removal......as it is really a pain in the arse job to do that...

Thanks for your help.

Does anyone know the part number for the O rings ? Thanks for looking !!!!!!

I'm thinking of just dissconnecting the air con, it doesn't work anyway. Has anyone done this ? How much of the system did you take out/ leave in ?