A glitch in the Matrix

[MaestroMatt]

I spent a happy and trouble-free Saturday making A82 WHR run beautifully: fixed the oil leak; new oil; oil filter; gear-box oil; new vacuum advance tube; cleaned the carb; tweaked the timing; new fuel-flow transducer (which works!); new fuel filter - the lot. And just as I was motoring along enjoying the first smooth ride I have had in that car since I bought it and thinking how pleased I was that nothing was leaking all over the road, what did I see? A small splash of green liquid in the passenger foot well. :banghead:

It turns out that the :censored:ing heater matrix has sprung a leak. I arched my back across the sill, got my head and shoulders up under there found the problem - I shall try to describe it as best I can in case any of you have got any bright ideas:

The leak is very slight and is not coming from the matrix itself but from the top pipe (not sure if it is inlet or outlet right now, but they both get damned hot!) that comes through the bulkhead and joins up to the matrix proper. The pipe seems to disappear into a little rubber thing and it is leaking from around this. Feeling resourceful, I clamped a jubilee clip round the rubber bit and did it up as tight as I could and, fingers crossed, there wasn't a trace of green liquid when I got to the station this morning. This is probably only a stop-gap measure though - it felt like a bodge as I did it. If it starts spraying around again, I will probably bypass the heater matrix under the bonnet until I can lay my hands on a new unit to fit (that must be a b*tch of a job, even with the handy multi-piece Mk. 1 dash). My real hope is that one of you has encountered this problem and found a sure-fire fix. All advice welcome as I really don't want a car-full of coolant next time I get stuck in traffic and the engine hots up a bit!

Sorry for the long post! :rolleyes:

[Liam]

We had a simila problem on my dads meastro (K692UBW). I kept putting off the job of removing the dash by adding rad weld when ever it started dripping again. This worked temporarily but wasn't really very clever because about a year later, the rad-weld must have become dislodged and all of a sudden a gaping hole had appeared, emptying the entire cooling system in the passenger footwell in just a few minutes!

The only real fix is to remove the dash and then change the matrix. It is a fiddley job, but easily done by yourself. We got a replacement matrix from the scrappy, again horrible to remove and a bit risky I know but still very cheap and its been fine since.

I've been driving my maestro (F134OBC) without a heater for a while as the motor had packed up and its horrible when its cold, especially when the screen mists up. I changed the entire heater this weekend, ironicly the hottest weekend of the year so far!

[MaestroMatt]

Hmm, it is as I feared. I may chance my arm with the jubilee clip until I have time to completely bypass the heater matrix from under the bonnet then try to get hold of a decent matrix second hand (hmm, are they still available from Rover?) and fit it when I take the dash apart to rewire the stereo (through the trip computer relay) and fit new speakers. Kill two birds with one stone that way.

[Wonko_The_Sane]

I'd suggest checking the scrappies...when I stripped my C reg prior to destruction I removed an almost perfect matrix and pipe bit...so they're out there..

[MaestroMatt]

I have just phoned Rover and have some excellent news to report... They still sell heater matrixes and pipe assembles (actually called the flange!). Now, the entire unit is £230 which would send me heading straight to the nearest scrappie, but the flange - which is the bit that is leaking - is a mere £33. Fantastic.

[Maria]

Oh, well if it's only the flange you need, you may be in luck... :D