Heating matrix!!!!

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stretch
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Joined: 17 Mar 2004, 21:06
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Heating matrix!!!!

Post by stretch »

Please help! Apparently the heating matrix has gone on my Advantage and is leaking through to the foot wells. This is causing an awful smell and smoke to come out of the blowers making it impossible to drive.How do I get this fixed/take off the dashboard without it costing me a small fortune? I put extra water in the radiator and this seemed to leak through extremely quickly. No idea what to do really! (nottingham area)
David W
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Post by David W »

Ian,
The proper answer is to take out the complete dash and fit a new matrix. Matrix quite reasonable at about £40. Taking out dash nightmare** DIY job or 6-8hrs at trade rates!
**Edit: Perhaps "nightmare job" is a little strong but it is a daunting task, you do need to be very particular about every fastening and connection of you'll end up with rattles and creaks for the rest of the life of the car plus things that don't work when you get it back together. Doing over a weekend is ideal, get as far as fitting the matrix on Sat and leave the dash replacement for Sun. If you have an airbag this needs extreme care as accidental detonation can injure.
Depending on your maintenance ideas might be worth a try to drain and flush coolant then add one of these "extra strength" leak sealers to a fresh anti-freeze mix. System must always be properly bled after this work or it will be a new head gasket next!
Searching here on ZX heater matrix should find lots of ideas.
David
rg
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Post by rg »

Stretch,
Try Forte Leak Stopper.
Known to work on Xantia matrices if the leak is not too severe.
Mr Woollard is right on the length of the job, but it is not beyond the skills of a DIY-er if there is a decent manual to follow, and a patient family!
My Pug 405 took about a day and a half, and I "took it steady" as they say in Notts (miduck).
HTH
rg
P 2501
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Post by P 2501 »

rg, what did you find were the really tricky bits when you did your pug? (or was the whole thing tricky) Was this the infamous 250,000 405 as described on HJ's site?!
Brian Oblivion
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Post by Brian Oblivion »

Where is the HJ article indicated below [|)]???
<blockquote id="quote"><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"><i>Originally posted by P 2501</i>

rg, what did you find were the really tricky bits when you did your pug? (or was the whole thing tricky) Was this the infamous 250,000 405 as described on HJ's site?!
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote"></font id="quote">
Ta
Brian
stretch
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Post by stretch »

Thanks for the advice. What tools would I need to do this.I have access to tools and equipment and the time(although not my ideal way to spend a weekend!.From initial inspection it would seem to need an 'alan'(?) key of some sort. I may try the leak stopper just to see if that works. Cheers
David W
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Post by David W »

No special tools as such, assuming you have a torx bit set.
Follow Haynes which gives a reasonable guide to this work.
The best advice I can give is to write down every single step on A4 lined paper and follow the list back up on assembly to ensure everything is replaced 100%.
If this link works here's an image of one ZX matrix change I did a while ago.
http://groups.msn.com/honestjohn/proble ... PhotoID=40
David
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