xantia heater matrix

[Raul]

Hi


One of my greatest fears became a reality today as I suddenly experienced an extensive coolant smell in the cabin. I initially tought that the small leak from the main radiator is the reason but as soon as I switched on the blower the steam was on the front screen. I read somewhere from the manual that handbrake cables need to be loosened from the calipers to allow the handprake lever to go fully up in order to remove the centre console . Is it true? It is a hdi without aircon. Also I would like to ask about a little play in the steering wheel. Is it a steering rack or could there be something in the steering column that could cause this little play. The car has about 15000 miles on the clock.

[DickieG]

You don't need to mess about with the handbrake cables, simply press down hard on the brake pedal and at the same time pull up the handbrake, it'll then allow sufficient clearance to pull up the rear of centre console to remove it.

[rory_perrett]

Hi


Also I would like to ask about a little play in the steering wheel. Is it a steering rack or could there be something in the steering column that could cause this little play. The car has about 15000 miles on the clock.

On my black car which I have just pensioned off I have play in the universal joint at the bottom of the steering column, its giving me about 1/2" (12mm) play at the steering wheel rim.

[xf1ref]

Other method to allow handbreak fully up is to remove only one wheel, left or right, and remove the cable from caliper.

[Raul]

Half a day and no progress as I can not remove the elbow connector. The plastic inlet pipe from the air filter is also interfering the access to the connector. If I eventually need to remove the plastic pipe in case the connector brakes how is it done? I do not even see where does that pipe go. I simply do not understand why they made such a desing in order to change the heater matrix you have to tear the whole car apart. On my 1,9 td the connector was already broken when I bought the car and I used a spare connector from scrapped zx.


I got it open eventually. I gave up and simply disconnected the bypass hose that is on the thermostat housing and connected the air compressor to it. One person had to block the outlet with finger and then I pressed the clip, wiggled the connector with full force and it blowed off. I am going to call it a day.

[DickieG]

That connection is nearly always impossibly tight, my method is to get the car up to full temperature to the point where the fans are running and use the pressure/heat in the system to help push the connection apart, similar to what you've done.

When you put it back together place the rubber seals in the female section otherwise you'll never get it locked in place.

[Stickyfinger]

Does this help you see everything

[Raul]

I finally got the matrix out. At first I removed two golden bolts and one screw in the front side to split the heater box but I soon understood that there is one more screw at the backside of the heaterbox that is almost impossible to acsess. Somehow I managed to remove it but I am not sure I can get it back again. I am going to bypass the heater matrix and flush the system with kleen-flo. How acsessible is the block drain bolt on HDI?

I also found out that the matrix I got from the supplier does not fit. I got the valeo matrix but turns out that the one fitted to my car is made by behr frape. My 1,9 td is a model with aircon. Could someone confirm that the aircon version uses valeo matrix. Then I just leave this matrix for spare part for the 1,9 td.