spicy smell from heater

[RichardW]

I had water out the bottom of the dash on my Xantia - added Forte and it dried up. That was about 40k miles ago - no weeps, no smell, no misting up since. Mirrors my previous experience with Forte - it's effectively a permanent repair (provided it's not as bad as Dean's in the first place I guess!). Forte will be going back in when I change the water pump soon. Maybe one day I will face the Matrix, but not just yet

[addo]

I worry about English cooking. The curries I'm familiar with, don't exactly smell like ethylene glycol.

Is it a case of instant korma?

Dean's description fits my car perfectly; I expect to see a similar hatrix when the job is done in a few months.

[CitroJim]

I worry about English cooking. The curries I'm familiar with, don't exactly smell like ethylene glycol.

Ahh, then you need to come to the UK and enjoy the delights of an average chippie (Fish and Chip shop) Adam

They often have a curry sauce for dipping chips in that smells exactly like hot Ethylene Glycol vapour

Some Chinese Takeaways do the same sort of curry sauce. Revolting stuff

And that from a curry lover. I have a Bhuna planned for this evening

[addo]

History meets technology - microchips in ancient grease - was the catchphrase, right? Next time you or John come out here, you'll get dragged to my mate's café down south. It'll put you in a good position to compare fast food of the two countries.

When I fitted the heater hoses at the firewall last time, I put PBR rubber grease on the O-rings and inside the couplings. When correctly fitted up it clicked in super-smoothly and didn't leak. Hopefully when it comes apart again soon, the rubber grease will help dissembly.

[rpaco]

Very glad I found this thread. I was going to describe the smell as that of a hot leaky domestic radiator in a system with Furnox inhibitor. This has been puzzling me because it smells nothing like Glycol/Bluecol.
I don't appear to be loosing any water either.

Now I haven't heard of either of the new fangled leak sealants mentioned in the thread above, but I do have a tin of Holts Radweld, admittedly it is about twenty years old.
Any ideas as to whether it would still work? Brand new and expensive at the time; it was bought for my 998cc mini cooper, come to think now it is maybe 30 years old. (cooper died on old A2 in an impressive cloud of steam several times due to scale in the block creating local hot spots, thus boiling....etc)

Also how difficult is it to replace the Xantia heater matrix? (If indeed that is leaking)
Is there a walk through anywhere?
cheers

[CitroJim]

I not use Radweld personally, either old or new. K-Seal is recommended by some but Forte Stop Leak is the favourite! With Radweld there's always a worry that fine passages may be blocked using it.

I have my own horror story of an unknown rad sealant possibly killing an autobox due to it clogging the transmission cooler.

The heater matrix is a long and tedious job but not technically difficult. It'll take a good day as the whole dash needs to come out to get at it...


There are a few threads on here describing it...