hot water in drivers side footwell tdi 300

Hi,
Driving along the other day and i suddenly noticed a wisp of what i thought at first was smoke , wafting up from my steering coloum, but
no smell of burning at all, and then i noticed my footwell was soaken with
warm water, obviously someting wrong with the heater, but what ? and how do i get to it, is it a dashboard removal job , should i try, or garage it ,
Can i by pass the heater to keep it running until i can fix it , but with the winter around the corner will need it fixed.
thanks
ETR

It'll be the heater matrix. You probably get a whiff of hot anti-freeze as well.The manual will tell you how to replace it. In theory you could simply short-circuit the heater hoses and it would be OK, but it depends how complex the heater system is on that model. If the heater matrix is going it might be time to get a new rad as well. It's usually caused by corrosion, but could possibly be that your cooling system is over-pressurising.

where to start ? i can see the end of the radiator , how does this slide out , first looks like the centre consul is in the way. how does that come off do you have to undo the handbrake cable ? i can see the foam on the end of the radiator is wet , could the seals where the pipes go in be shot , deperately looking hopeing for a simple answer and not he whole dash off. which if garaged will be more than she is worth,not her fault that but the costs garages charge .

ericthered said:

where to start ? i can see the end of the radiator , how does this slide out , first looks like the centre consul is in the way. how does that come off do you have to undo the handbrake cable ? i can see the foam on the end of the radiator is wet , could the seals where the pipes go in be shot , deperately looking hopeing for a simple answer and not he whole dash off. which if garaged will be more than she is worth,not her fault that but the costs garages charge .

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To keep your car running without running the risk of loosing engine coolant and the risks that brings I suggest it would be advisable to simply bye- pass the heater matrix for now.
This is straight forward on a 300 tdi as follows.
In the engine bay take off the black sound deadening sheet of rubber on top of the rocker cover.
The heater flow pipe is the rubber pipe sticking vertically up at the rear of the head. The heater return pipe is the metal pipe running along the top of the head at the side of the rocker cover.
Follow the rubber heater hoses from the engine to the bulk head and disconnect them both at the bulkhead.
Join these two hoses together with a bit of copper pipe and jubilee clips.
Thats your heater bye-passed, no more leaks, no more heater but at least you have a driveable car in the meantime.
You should also check your coolant level at the plug on top of the thermostat housing just to make sure the system is still full.

just disconnect the pipes going into the bulkhead and join them together with abit of pipe and jubilie clips until you get it sorted can be done by yourself i done mine last winter you don't need to take all the dash out just centre console and and heater panels and loosen the dash so it will give you enough room to slide matrix out it was abit of a bitch to put back the pipes and stop the leaks a small mirror came in handy so you could see the clips went back on properly, that job taught me alot and what not todo next time but if you do it that way do get a engineers mirror which are cheap on flea bay it may save you alot of time also lift the carpet and cut out the insulation and dry it or replace. have fun

Hi thanks slither & nicedayforit ,
I have allready joined the pipes and loosened the centre consul screws but it doesent seem to want to come off , what am i doing wrong the hand brake handle does seem to be in the way , i live on a slight bank and am a bit wary of undoing the brake cable , but if i have to i will is this the way to remove the consul
ETR

You need to undo the handrake hadle and put it vertical to get the console out

ericthered said:

Hi thanks slither & nicedayforit ,
I have allready joined the pipes and loosened the centre consul screws but it doesent seem to want to come off , what am i doing wrong the hand brake handle does seem to be in the way , i live on a slight bank and am a bit wary of undoing the brake cable , but if i have to i will is this the way to remove the consul
ETR

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Chock the wheels!
And nb, if you ever jack the car up, chock the wheels then too. DON'T rely on the handbrake - it will not hold the car with a wheel off the ground!!!

Thanks all , I can see where the handbrake cable attaches to the handle , if i undo the clip when brake is off, is the cable under tension and shoot off out of site or will it be slack so i can just clip it back or is it a 2 man job

No just pull out clip and pop out holding bolt thing.... just chock your back wheels as a safety precaution any way

thanks all finish my last nightshift thurs morning and then i am going in tools ready i know all about spanners a ring at one end and a gap on the other with numbers on em
ETR

ericthered said:

where to start ? i can see the end of the radiator , how does this slide out , first looks like the centre consul is in the way. how does that come off do you have to undo the handbrake cable ? i can see the foam on the end of the radiator is wet , could the seals where the pipes go in be shot , deperately looking hopeing for a simple answer and not he whole dash off. which if garaged will be more than she is worth,not her fault that but the costs garages charge .

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unforunatley it is a dash out job, where abouts in the country are you?

metal frame at the bottom of the fuse box under the dash needs removing and the door for the fusebox under the steering have you disconnected the pipes to the matrix and the breather pipe pull the dash to make enough room and the matrix should slide straight it sounds messy but not that badcheck that you have removed the screws in the cubby box

And the breather pipe ??

Well i have dimantled enough stuff too get the matrix out , cant see any damage or reason for the leak ,maybe the seeals had gone , But now i have got the replacement matrix in but cannot get the two pipes all the way back in enough to put the clips on ??