P38A The woes of owning a p38

having just got my car back from garage for head gaskets and skim thought I would tackle the interior clean or even change the colour,and clean all the carpets I probley don't have to go much further having mentioned carpets u can imagine my horror on finding both sides wet underneath at the front I'm thinking heater matrix o rings at the moment I've got all the centre consol out and under side of steering wheel so I'm going to replace them just in case it smells a bit oily hopefully it will be easier now all the centre consols out then I will tackle the colour change any advice as always greatfully appreciated

Ah it's a labour of love

Drivers side.... possibly the heater O-rings, but in my case just a badly fitted screen.
Passenger side.... Sun-roof drain-tube?
Either side....crap Pollen-filter sealing?

New screen fitted about 8 months ago and I did the pollen filters and the pollen filter housings aswell Mabey the sunroof drains again but will them again

There is also the heater box drains which you can just see under heater you check them from under car front of gearbox tunnel ether side give them a squeeze and get ready for a wet arm

One of my rubber grommet things is none existent

If the rubber grommet thing is not there you will no doubt get a wet carpet from the aircon.

As I found out to my joys of doing the HG last year, the heater matrix is often not far behind a HG renewal.

the heater pipes pass through the bulkhead on the drivers side just above the 1,3,5,7 bank. Invariably those pipes, when removing the coolant hoses and removing the heads will get moved and jostled. there is a long run from the bulkhead to the heater matrix resulting in a larger lever movement and those pipes terminate into a plastic housing. where the O rings are. The result will be at best unseated o rings worst case a fractured pipe housing.

however...…. I went through all this trying to get the o rings seated so they didn't result in a wet carpet on the drivers side. after several attempts I ended uk utilizing the services of MartyUk to replace the heater matrix. when he pulled my matrix, it want the o rings or the housing.. it was the matrix itself rotted out, so no amount of fannying about trying to get the o rings to seat was going to do it. 300 quid with Marty had the whole dash out, new heater core, all the blend motors done, foam redone, plastic clips and mounts done, and no book symbol on the HVAC which remains absent. He even upped my SatNav disk to a later version !

Am I right in thinking the grommets go up under the engine by the gearbox one each side

This is what they look like and they are top of trans tunnel ether side of gearbox

Cheers brianp38dse just been underneath car and squeezed the two grommets nothing came out and don't want to force anything up them

The two grommets were there I thought one was missing plus checked both sides inside the car ref your pics both ok no wet carpet near them and done sunroof drain pipe drivers side it may be coming in drivers side from top of drivers door rubber that's all come away at top front corner and Mabey that passenger side aswell still got to do sunroof drain that side will I see or feel wet carpet under where the o rings are situated cheers for advice