Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

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gadgetgricey
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Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by gadgetgricey »

My Xantia has never got warm quickly, its always taken a while to heat up, but when warm was warm. (not really warm like other cars, but warm enough)

However the past few weeks its taking the same amount of time to warm up, but the amount of condensation in the car is making the car almost undriveable.
Get in clean the inside of the window off with a sponge, put the aircon and heater on and within a couple of miles the condensation is back.

Done a couple of long journeys and the car was warm, and eventually the front and side windows demisted, but the rear windows and tailgate glass stayed misted over.

I assume its the heater matrix, but as the car is getting warm (eventually) started to think it might be something else.

No water leaks in the footwells or coming in via the estate tailgate that I can see.

Cheers

- Dave -
C8 - Petrol Auto (Love the electronic doors)
Xantia Hdi Exclusive Estate (gone but not forgotten)
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Re: Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by Northern_Mike »

Dave, are the rear footwells dry? My estate used to do this, and I discovered that the rear footwell behind the passenger seat was sodden.
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gadgetgricey
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Re: Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by gadgetgricey »

No dry as a bone.
As you say, the same thing happened on my previous white one. Water got in through the tailgate, and then was absorbed by the boot foam carpet, and then dripped and collected in the rear footwells as you braked.... :?:

- Dave -
C8 - Petrol Auto (Love the electronic doors)
Xantia Hdi Exclusive Estate (gone but not forgotten)
Northern_Mike

Re: Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by Northern_Mike »

gadgetgricey wrote:No dry as a bone.
As you say, the same thing happened on my previous white one. Water got in through the tailgate, and then was absorbed by the boot foam carpet, and then dripped and collected in the rear footwells as you braked.... :?:
That's exactly what happened with mine, it took me ages to work out where the water was coming from. I had the door in bits, the carpet up, the lot.

Are you getting any smells of antifreeze or apparently curry in the car? Is the pollen filter clean? My Cougar used to mist horrifically until I changed the filthy pollen filter.
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Re: Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by gadgetgricey »

Good call re the pollen filter... never thought of that.
Goes off to check location on the Hdi...

Cheers

Dave
C8 - Petrol Auto (Love the electronic doors)
Xantia Hdi Exclusive Estate (gone but not forgotten)
Northern_Mike

Re: Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by Northern_Mike »

gadgetgricey wrote:Good call re the pollen filter... never thought of that.
Goes off to check location on the Hdi...

Cheers

Dave

Should be just downstream of the heater blower, almost next to it . Goes in vertically if I remember correctly, so you can only see the bottom edge of it..
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Re: Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

The Haynes BoL is reasonably accurate in explaining how to access and replace the pollen filter.
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Re: Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by Northern_Mike »

Hell Razor5543 wrote:The Haynes BoL is reasonably accurate in explaining how to access and replace the pollen filter.
I recall it was a case of dropping the carpet under the glovebox and it's next to the heater blower. The Berlingo is pretty much the same as the Xantia
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Re: Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by gadgetgricey »

Have not had chance to have a look at the pollen filter yet, but did another search re this and found a thread where someone mentioned the re-circulation air flap, can cause this type of problem if stuck on recirc...
Now the slider on this Xantia is very smooth, almost as though there is nothing attached to it, but memory of my previous ones was that it was quite tough to move, and almost had a "thud" when it was closed.
Once again this is a little vague as it was not something I used that often, and never even tried to use it in this car until last night.

Anyone know of a way to test if the recirc is opening/closing, or even where it "opens" so I can leave it open.

Thanks again

- Dave -
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Re: Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by xf1ref »

If the re-circulation air flap is working, with the heater blower at max speed you can hear a difference in sound.
When working on re-circulation the sound of the air blowing is considerably higher.
If you move the slider and is no difference the air flaps are stuck, because there are 2 flaps, one for outside air and one for inside air.
Both work together, when one is open the other one is closed and vice versa.
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Re: Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by gadgetgricey »

xf1ref wrote:If the re-circulation air flap is working, with the heater blower at max speed you can hear a difference in sound.
When working on re-circulation the sound of the air blowing is considerably higher.
If you move the slider and is no difference the air flaps are stuck, because there are 2 flaps, one for outside air and one for inside air.
Both work together, when one is open the other one is closed and vice versa.
Looks as though my flap is not working then, as there was no change to the volume/speed of the motor whilst moving the lever back and forth.

Is the flap located by the pollen filter, behind glovebox?

Just hope mine is closed, or I'm back to the Heater matrix being the culprit [-o<

Cheers

Dave
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Re: Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by xf1ref »

Hello Dave,
To check both flaps you have to remove the glovebox, but I think you should check first the pulling cable from the lever ( removing front panel).
Here are some pics since I changed the heater matrix.
Image
Image
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Re: Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by gadgetgricey »

Hi all.
Just a quick update: Fairly confident it was not the heater matix. :cd:
Had a look behind the heater controls and the panel was not moving the cable at all. Just for the moment pulled the cable out to "open" the flap, and reattached the controls.
Took the car for a long drive yesterday, in weather that normally gets everything misted over. (Even started to snow at one point), and car remained mist free.

Its nice being able to see out of the rear windows again.

Its amazing how something so simple could have caused so much problem.

Aim is at some point to fit a replacement heater control panel, but for the moment the car demists as it should.
Then just got to fix the Eberspacher. :lol:

Thanks again all.

Dave
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Re: Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by Old-Guy »

If the temperature gauge takes more than a couple of miles to come up to about 80 C, then suspect the thermostat. If the thermostat isn't closing fully (or is missing!), then the engine will take a long time (if ever) to get up to temperature in winter - not only will the heater not produce the proper blast of hot air, but running cold won't do your engine any good. If the thermostat is stuck only partly open, then come summer you'll get overheating problems too!
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Re: Is my Heater Matrix on the way Out - Xantia S2

Post by Zelandeth »

Well that tells me what I'll be doing tomorrow, mine is also stuck on recirc it seems! Don't suppose the flap is accessible from underneath with the heater motor removed is it? Just I know that only takes five mins to do!
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