P38 heater matrix

Hi everyone,
I got stuck into the blend motors a couple of weeks ago and on dismantleing the numerous plastic pieces discovered grey splater marks on the inside off some of the plastic,looking on the web i found that the O rings at the heater matrix were suspect and leaking water as the rangie has a hard carpet surface i often wondered why i was always topping up the water but as there was no signs,,,well i just let it go but found that underneath the carpet there is a sponge layer and it was completely saturated with water,worring as there is a lot of cable under there. Well i replaced the O rings and though that would do but its been two weeks now and water is still going down well not by much maybe 50 - 75ml per 100 miles is this normal for the year ? its a 2000 model.Now i am being a bit long winded here but on finding the said heater matrix pipes
as the picture shows above hopefully,, the screw you see in the picture i do not have,the threaded part is there and the lug is there but the lug is blanked off so you cannot put a screw threw even if you wanted to, should my rangie have this screw? and with no screw there would the matrix leak? Thanks for any help and sorry for being long winded

bricko said:

Hi everyone,
I got stuck into the blend motors a couple of weeks ago and on dismantleing the numerous plastic pieces discovered grey splater marks on the inside off some of the plastic,looking on the web i found that the O rings at the heater matrix were suspect and leaking water as the rangie has a hard carpet surface i often wondered why i was always topping up the water but as there was no signs,,,well i just let it go but found that underneath the carpet there is a sponge layer and it was completely saturated with water,worring as there is a lot of cable under there. Well i replaced the O rings and though that would do but its been two weeks now and water is still going down well not by much maybe 50 - 75ml per 100 miles is this normal for the year ? its a 2000 model.Now i am being a bit long winded here but on finding the said heater matrix pipes

as the picture shows above hopefully,, the screw you see in the picture i do not have,the threaded part is there and the lug is there but the lug is blanked off so you cannot put a screw threw even if you wanted to, should my rangie have this screw? and with no screw there would the matrix leak? Thanks for any help and sorry for being long winded

Click to expand...

is the lug missing,or that you cannot get the screw down it.

If you are talking about the yellow zinc coloured screw it is just there to hold the heater matrix into the heater box there are also clips there that do the same job. It sholdn't make the matrix leak if it isn't there.

I had to replace the O rings in mine not long after getting it and also only a couple of months after a main dealer had done the same thing.

I have got the following tips for doing it.

- Replace the screw with a cap head bolt.
- Drill out the thread on the alloy clamp and use a nut washer and thread lock at the back of it
- when assembling it use some long nose pliers to hold the clamp to the heater matrix that way you can get all the lugs lined.

I did all of the above and touch wood mine has been ok since March this year, it took me a couple of attemps to assemble it and it was on the second go i used the nut. Also I found it was a lot easier if all the componenst had been warmed up a little by running the engine to get everything nice and snug.

Why do they go?? i had to have mine done an my blend motor still needs doing.

Hi,thanks for responses the lug is there but this lug has no hole on first seeing this i thought that who ever had done this before had forgotten to put in this screw but the hole to put this screw in is blanked off.