Antifreeze coolent in footwell horror!!

[Michael Montgomery]

Hi guys been brought to my attention today after a wiring install for my new audio unit the left hand side footwell is wet under the carpet noticeably antifreeze!!

Without much experience myself gonna have to take the dash off it seems to get to the issue.

Anyone have any experience with taking the dash apart other than the front two black inserts?

Also how differcult is the job to get to the heater matrix I would assume?

Thank you in advace

Dervis

 

[clivehorridge]

Oh bugger, I'm guessing that will not be much fun.

Never done the job TBH Dervis, but it doesn't sound good.

 

[StarCruiser]

Beat me to it Clive, that was almost exactly what I was going to say. One thing I suppose Dervis, you could bypass it or plug it off completely in the engine bay until you can pull it apart.

Commiserations, I doubt it will be fun. Maybe @karl webster might be able to shed some light on how it comes out. Might even be a source of a good second hand one.
Good luck with it anyway.

 

[clivehorridge]

Cyprus, mmmm, have you ever used the heater Dervis?

 

[StarCruiser]

Cyprus, mmmm, have you ever used the heater Dervis?

Just what I was thinking with my last post Clive.

 

[frank rabbets]

Worth checking first if the leak is actually in the engine compartment and fluid is tracking in to the car area. Is the level going down in the expansion bottle ?

 

[karl webster]

Dervis.
Take the glove box out first. Very simple and quick. See if you can see anything. Is yours a left hoooker?
Taking the dash out isn't exactly hard it just takes time and so will putting it back together.

 

[Michael Montgomery]

Hardly use the heater really Richard / Clive being hot here 9 months of the year but going to attempt to take the dash out after the summer & investigate.

Any idea how to bypass that from the engine bay just too hot right now to attempt this fix here.

I've seen a heater matrix from rough Trax link below I'm considering for the fix.

www.roughtrax4x4.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=Heater+matrix+

Thanks

 

[Michael Montgomery]

Worth checking first if the leak is actually in the engine compartment and fluid is tracking in to the car area. Is the level going down in the expansion bottle ?

The level was going down with a leak from the radiator Frank sometime ago and then I gave that a temporary fix but inside the footwell you can see the leak from the dash over the passenger driveshaft tunnel footwell.

Thanks

 

[Towpack]

Hi Dervis, I've removed the matrix on a couple of cars (not an LC) and it was pretty much as Carl said. Not particularly difficult, just time consuming worth lots of screw, fasteners and connectors that need to go back in the same place with none left over Lol!

This shows the feed and return pipes for the matrix if you want to bypass it:

 

[Michael Montgomery]

Dervis.
Take the glove box out first. Very simple and quick. See if you can see anything. Is yours a left hoooker?
Taking the dash out isn't exactly hard it just takes time and so will putting it back together.

Hi Karl mines a rhd import so I assume the same as the ones in the UK.

 

[Michael Montgomery]

Hi Dervis, I've removed the matrix on a couple of cars (not an LC) and it was pretty much as Carl said. Not particularly difficult, just time consuming worth lots of screw, fasteners and connectors that need to go back in the same place with none left over Lol!

This shows the feed and return pipes for the matrix if you want to bypass it:

View attachment 131232

Hi Towpack I'm looking to bypass it for now from the engine bay once I find out how to do that but be good to know where the heater matrix is in tepee dash. Do you have a diagram of this?

Thanks

 

[frank rabbets]

Still worth checking those connections in engine compartment. I know you can see water coming out of the matrix box but it could still be the connectors. Not likely to be I know but might save you a lot of work.
My AUDI 80 matrix failed. I put off doing the job but in the end there was so much steam I could not drive the car with windows closed. Terrible job and the wife had to help to line it up to get back together.

 

[clivehorridge]

A by-pass should be easy Dervis, the circuit enters the heater matrix by the two pipes protruding through the bulkhead into the engine bay. Simply disconnect them and join them together with a short length of 15mm copper plumbing tubing.

The biggest problem will be that the hoses are moulded with bends suitable to align with the matrix pipes. It might be necessary to remove the rubber hoses altogether and replace them with ordinary straight hose, off a roll,

I'm not near the truck at the moment to offer better advice, but I'll have a look later, maybe a photo with some arrows drawn on may help.

 

[StarCruiser]

I think it wouldn't hurt to blank each pipe off with capped 15mm copper tube. It doesn't rely on flow through there and would be the same as having the heater in the cold position which closes the valve in the engine bay.

 

[clivehorridge]

I think it wouldn't hurt to blank each pipe off with capped 15mm copper tube. It doesn't rely on flow through there and would be the same as having the heater in the cold position which closes the valve in the engine bay.

Or that, Rich agreed.

There's no need for water to flow in the pipes, if there's no matrix to feed.

 

[Michael Montgomery]

Thanks guys for all your advice and attention to detail. Means a lot the amazing support on this forum.

Today I wanted to blank off the flow in the engine bay & in the end my mechanic friend advised better to spend the time to take the dash out and replace the heater matrix. The front black dash inserts were already out already.

I've booked a visit with my cousin who has a garage in the city to where I can get another opinion and if so would have a better place to take the entire dash out myself with the advice on hand.

Been told I can get another heater matrix in the city so I'm tempted to get the job done properly even though it's a big job, one that I've never attempted

At the same time I'm considering replacing the front radiator even though the black pepper inserted has been working great as a long lasting leak fix

 

[Michael Montgomery]

Guys an early start today started taking the dash out. Like the title says "horrible" job yet hopefully going to get to the bottom of the leak will reap a rewarding achievement no doubt.

Taking the dash out proved pretty easy biggest issues were the amount of factory / aftermarket wires in the way amongst proving fiddle to say the least. Not long in by all accounts was saying to myself "what have I got myself into"lol

 

[Michael Montgomery]

I took the metal brace out to give better room on top of the heater matrix. These jobs there's never a easy route but the more I took the car apart the more I thought it's going to be harder to put back together so I took some pictures along the way.

To take the heater matrix out had to undo in the engine bay the a/c pipes that let the gas go. On hind-side should of taken this out prior at another garage with the machine. if I'd taken it out could of put most of it in again whilst topping up!! This way lost out to a few bob!!

Also undone the other two coolent pipes to the left from the engine bay.

From the bolts being undone inside this allowed the heater matrix to be pulled out.

A huge sense of relief getting this far

 

[Michael Montgomery]

At this point I had my hands on the culprit that was looking worse for wear but none the less the leak clearly visible.

Parts being scarce here I'm getting the core replaced with the ends welded back fully tested to be good as new by tomorrow morning.