Leak from heater in passenger footwell

cmmercer · Jul 31, 2013

Hi all, picked up our new 2003 TD4 Freebie at the weekend.

Air con wasn't up to much, so had it serviced and re-gassed yesterday. Was having a bit of a look around the car today and noticed that on a fat concertinaed pipe coming from the heater into the passenger footwell there is sign of some pink liquid (I assume coolant?) very slowly dripping under from the bottom of it.

Any ideas folks? Thanks

Tiercel · Jul 31, 2013

I believe that would be your heating matrix fooked! I'm sure I read somewhere that it might also be a warning sign of imminent head gasket failure too. Best get it checked!

cmmercer · Jul 31, 2013

Tiercel said:
I believe that would be your heating matrix fooked! I'm sure I read somewhere that it might also be a warning sign of imminent head gasket failure too. Best get it checked!

oh no. don't say that!!

slimboy · Jul 31, 2013

I had the same problem 2 years ago and its very likely the heater matrix on the way out. I fixed it with rad weld and not lost a drop of coolant since. Never heard that it's a sign of HG on its way out though.

cmmercer · Jul 31, 2013

slimboy said:
I had the same problem 2 years ago and its very likely the heater matrix on the way out. I fixed it with rad weld and not lost a drop of coolant since. Never heard that it's a sign of HG on its way out though.

Just been up to the garage and he quoted £800 off the top of his head having done one in the last few months. Who thought of putting something that leaks in a place where practically the entire interior has to come out to get to it!?!? ;-)

He didn't have any sealing stuff so will pop back up tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed that will sort it.

Do you have to keep putting the rad weld in?

teddywood1 · Jul 31, 2013

rad weld or anything like is only a temporary measure and you do not want to keep doing it as it will block your main rad up where did you have the car from I would go back and tell them or did they already know ,and it is not that big a job ,I would be looking else where

cmmercer · Jul 31, 2013

teddywood1 said:
rad weld or anything like is only a temporary measure and you do not want to keep doing it as it will block your main rad up where did you have the car from I would go back and tell them or did they already know ,and it is not that big a job ,I would be looking else where

It was a private sale last week! didn't see any sign of it then when looking around, but wouldn't have necessarily though to have looked for it! I will of course seek some other quotes for the work too :-(

It's upsetting as everything was going so smoothly having found this car and sold ours really easily!

slimboy · Jul 31, 2013

teddywood1 said:
rad weld or anything like is only a temporary measure and you do not want to keep doing it as it will block your main rad up where did you have the car from I would go back and tell them or did they already know ,and it is not that big a job ,I would be looking else where

Yep I agree however if you do a coolant change every 2 years including a system flush then using a rad weld type product should not be a problem ( I hope).

Litch · Jul 31, 2013

Funnily enough I was reading the Mike Manifold article in an old LR Monthly magazine earlier today which covered this very point.

He was saying how he had the same problem and the age of the vehicle made it a BER case so he did a workaround.
He cut the pipes off the old matrix to enable it to be removed and then by measuring & checking he trimmed the pipes on the new matrix until they were just short enough to let it be fitted without removing the dash. He then completed the pipework by adding short extentions which went through the bulkhead to the normal connection.

Worth considering?

cmmercer · Jul 31, 2013

Litch said:
Funnily enough I was reading the Mike Manifold article in an old LR Monthly magazine earlier today which covered this very point.

He was saying how he had the same problem and the age of the vehicle made it a BER case so he did a workaround.
He cut the pipes off the old matrix to enable it to be removed and then by measuring & checking he trimmed the pipes on the new matrix until they were just short enough to let it be fitted without removing the dash. He then completed the pipework by adding short extentions which went through the bulkhead to the normal connection.

Worth considering?

I've certainly found a few posts on the forum that suggest a work around including the use of some silicon pipe work to make them more flexible and therefore replaceable without taking off the whole dash.

There seems to be some discrepancy in quite how easy this work-around actually is though!

Leak from heater in passenger footwell

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