Hi,

 

I'll try to explain the situation as quickly as possible.

 

2 weeks ago I was driving on motorway, the driver side heating went ice cold, and passenger side went cooler. Then a while later, both sides were ice cold. Then pretty soon after low coolant light / beeping started and I hit the hard shoulder immediately.

 

(BTW I noticed a "slight" difference in heat before the motorway breakdown. Driverside was cooler before coming up to heat ages after the passenger side).

 

Had 5L with me as I have a phantom "coolant leak" and need to top it every few weeks. Filled it up and started engine to have it dumped out on the ground.

 

Needed recovered, the problem was a hole in a plastic connector. Part was dealer only, local mechanic fitted and replaced coolant. Said the level might drop and to check / top up etc, which it did.

 

Now since collecting the car the heat still isn't working properly. Luke warm on passenger side, cool on driver side.

 

I read about the silica bag splitting and blocking the heater matrix.

 

I've watched a video of the replacement and decided to do it myself.

 

BUT... Both pipes on the heater matrix are hot? So does that not mean that coolant is flowing through OK?

 

But all the other symptoms point to heater matrix as I read everyone saying that the core is blocked as the hot coolant enters the passengera "heating part" of the matrix first and the exits on the l drivers, so that's the cause of the temp difference from the vents, but both pipes down in the foot well behind the dash are hot?

 

Any help / input would be appreciated.

Hi,

Did this recently on my car (clamped the coolant hoses at the bulkhead as the coolant system had been drained and flushed recently). The matrix was not 100% blocked, so some coolant could still circulate, hence the pipes were warm.

 

Reconnecting the pipes to the new matrix required gentle persuasion with a rubber mallet, it is a tight fit. If you watched the same video as I did, he didn't reconnect properly first time.

 

So far the heater works and no loss of coolant (once topped up to account for the new matrix). Still need to do a long run to fully test it though.

 

Stuart

Hey Stuart,

 

All sorted now, had just bought the new matrix to fit myself (following the video of the guy fitting wrong first time lol) when the same pipe went again!

 

Had to get recovered and brought to mechanic, so he fitted the new matrix, expansion tank and coolant pipe when they all arrived.

 

The heat in the car is now warm within about 3-4 minutes of running vs when I bought the car I always thought it was slow to warm up the air. The silica bag has probably been leaking slowly for 3-4 years as this is a night and day improvement on heater warm up time.