Heater Matrix Repair - JOB DONE!!

[kiwi_110]

Well, I finally bit the bullet and attempted this fairly long but, in the end uncomplicated, job. I had imported a new matrix about a year ago but had been puting the job off as I could not even begin to get my head around having to remove the whole dash. I had bypassed the matrix on the engine side of the firewall with a simple U shaped bit of copper to keep the coolant circulation going. Anyway, today it was warm and sunny so I parked the Freebster outside and got started. Here's a rough "as done" report...

1. Removed the drivers airbag ( 2 x Torx T30).

2. Removed steering wheel (1 x 19mm nut).

3. Removed upper and lower steering column fascia (2 x philips screws).

4. Removed rotary coupler (4 x philips screws).

5. Removed indicator and wiper stalk assembly (1 x philips screw/clamp).

6. Removed clock (2 x philips screws).

7. Unplugged harness from fuse box.

8. Removed heater and radio fascia (2 x philips screws).

9. Removed radio (poked 4 x 4" nails down the holes to release).

10. Removed front part of centre console (2 x philips screws low down on each side of gear stick).

12. Unplugged main dash harnesses on left and right behind radio.

13. Removed passenger airbag (4 x Torx E11).

14. Removed left and right 'A' pillar fascias (prise out by hand, spring-clips).

15. Removed entire dash (12 x M8 bolts), worked it back far enough to unplug mirror control cable and then over the steering column and out of car.

16. Removed heater control cables and harness from control panel and swung it into the l/h footwell.

17. Loosen and move left outer heat duct to the left (1 x M8 bolt), remove left inner heat duct.

18. Loosen and move right outer heat duct to the right (1 x M8 bolt), move right inner heat duct to the right.

19. Compress and remove round duct between filter box and heater unit.

20. Remove 2 x M8 nuts at front top and 1 x M8 bolt lower rear of heater and remove heater straight to the rear. (Assumes coolant pipes already disconnected on engine side of firewall.)

At this stage it pretty much looks like this:

Here's the heater unit out, (the pic is upside down) showing the leakage from the matrix. the yellow arrow points to where I found a pinprick hole in the soldering.

I pressurised the matrix with a bit of water in it to locate the leak. I had intended to just replace it, but the blue-box one I'd bought was, frankly, a friggen horror story, (no surprises there really...) so I decided to repair the original. I just used a very small oxy-acetylene flame and some solder. I re-tested with compressed air and it was holding well with over 30 psi so I whacked it back in.

Here's a look at the crystalised OAT coolant inside the unit after I removed the matrix for repair.

Once I had the repaired matrix back in the unit, I reversed the process detailed above to get everything back in. In all, a 6 hour job. Not complicated, you just have to plod along and it all comes out. It was actually not as bad a job as I had thought. It's just a case of unplugging the main connectors ( x 3) and the loom and cluster stays with the dash when it comes out.

Ray.

[tim_roberts]

Great job and great write-up! Thanks