I've just had mine done. Cost £240 all in to supply and fit a new heater matrix and coolant. It's now toasty and warm for the first time in ages 
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No heat from vents
- Thread starter Telscossie
- Start date
Get some quotes. SEAT want £1200 to do it so getting an Indie at c.£250 would be a bargain.
You can do it yourself for £80 (Matrix) and about 2 or 3 hours of your time.
Also worth changing your coolant or as much as you can and also your expansion tank if you have the silicant bag fitted.
I had mine changed nearly 2 weeks ago for £180 labour and £70 for the matrix i supplied myself, and it solved the problem, hooray!..
BUT, I now have another issue!! The drivers side vent blows warm and not hot, I noticed that I used a tiny amount of coolant around 7 days after picking the car up after the drivers side vent was only blowing warm, then before i got round to topping it up, I did a short journey and noticed the drivers side vent was then only blowing cool air.. I topped up the coolant today and it has made it warmer/ on the verge of hot-ish but not back to how it was after the repair. Any ideas people.
BUT, I now have another issue!! The drivers side vent blows warm and not hot, I noticed that I used a tiny amount of coolant around 7 days after picking the car up after the drivers side vent was only blowing warm, then before i got round to topping it up, I did a short journey and noticed the drivers side vent was then only blowing cool air.. I topped up the coolant today and it has made it warmer/ on the verge of hot-ish but not back to how it was after the repair. Any ideas people.
800 bash **** that when i did mine on old car it cost 40 quid for a matrix, audi a1 tdi 2.0 about 2 hour labour to fit it, probs oess if your hands are small to get to the pipes and them god dam awful clios theynuse to hold pipe on
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You might have an air lock or another reason as it sounds like warm/hot coolant is not getting into the matrix. One way to check is test the temp of the 2 pipes in/out of the matrix and see. The IN pipe should be hot and the OUT pipe not as much (assuming you have the heating on).
Theoretically you can access the pipes in the engine bay by the bulkhead but it's easier if you do it from the passenger footwell directly onto the matric pipes. You'll need to remove the trim than runs by the central tunnel but it's only a couple of T20's or something.
I bought one of these to check mine.
Etekcity Lasergrip 800 Non-contact Digital Laser IR Infrared Thermometer, Temperature Gun, -50°C~750°C ( -58°F~1382°F ), Yellow/Black (Not suitable for measuring body temperature): Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools
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The coolant system is in 3 parts and quite complex. The only way to fully bleed is it apparently by VAG using posh kit to open/close valves etc - unless your garage did that. Some pipes are very narrow, are subject to blockages and could have debris in them (the crud that blocked your matrix will find any restriction in the system to park up - my thermostat housing was full of it). The system is meant to be self bleeding though and can take a while to settle. I'd keep topping it up (if feasible) and see how you go.
I had mine done in March and remember it still `gurgled` a bit when I swtiched off but now it's fine.
Not many people are mentioning having flushing done, which is so important as the silica gets everywhere and sludges up. Must be like doing an oil change, but only changing the oil filter!
My neighbour had the silica bag burst in his Golf GTD. His VW dealer wanted £1400 but a friend of his works at an Audi dealer and got it done for £900. He said they used a total of 40 litres of coolant to fully flush it out. Don't know if Golfs are that different, but they had to take the whole dash out to get to the matrix. They replaced the coolant expansion tank with one from a Golf 7.5 R which apparently has a separate chamber for the silica, so if it burst, it should contain it.
My 2014 Leon has a separate chamber for the Silica bag! I'm still changing it 'just in case'
There are loads of previous threads on this issue - here's a couple:
silica grain in the header tank
Same engine as mine, I thought it was called the CUPA but apparently it's the EA288. Still learning...
www.seatcupra.net
Duel climate heating only heating passenger side.
Ive noticed today that the drivers side of the heating stays cool on my 14 plate FR, but on the passenger side it can be controlled properly. Having said that even on high temperature the passenger side isn't as hot as it seemed to be before but its still ok. Ive tried turning the engine on and...
www.seatcupra.net
I am constantly mentioning about the potential for additional silica in circulation in the cooling system, and just changing the heater matrix may or may-not be enough - depends on the 'unknown' quantity of silica (from either casting the engine/ or a split silica bag) in circulation.
I have cleaned my matrix 3x now and each time it lasts longer between each clean - my theory is that i'm 'slowly' removing the 'finite' quantity of silica so eventually it shouldn't block again - but it is free for me to flush my heater matrix, and fairly quick process (<1 hour), you do NOT need to get the dash out.
I am still going to carry out several full coolant system flushes and change my thermostat when I do my cam belt, just making my own vacuum filling/bleeding coolant system.
I 'tiny' amount of coolant to me sounds like it's just released a little trapped air. When my matrix was blocked it would burp out the whole contents of the header tank, and you could see visible coolant signs around the tank, and my low coolant warning flashed up. Keep a bottle of water in your car - just in case, so you don't get stranded.jjp said:
Keep an eye or a temperature probe on the drivers side face vent and if this gets cooler while the passenger side stays hot (and the climate is asking for heat) I'd suggest the matrix is getting blocked again.
That looks an interesting gadget, might have to get one! I would assume it could be used to see if the air-con is getting cold enough in the summer.
I've had a similar device for over 10 years, there are lots of uses for them, around the cars and the home.
Found another thread where OP describes similar symptoms to my car...
www.seatcupra.net
My TSI 180 had its coolant pump replaced last autumn but continued to lose coolant this year. Local garage has tried flushing out the heater matrix a couple of times but still not getting any hot air, so looks like a replacement is in order.
Hopefully have warm air available in time for winter as almost got hypothermia driving the other evening; ambient temperature was 1.5 Celsius and my spectacles started fogging up so had to put the air-con back on ?
2014 Leon FR Coolant issues
So I have a 2014 DSG 150bhp 2.0 tdi and coolant is disappearing..... I've read plenty online about this issue but not many have resolved without getting rid.... Here is what I have done EGR replaced Water pump replaced New bottle All hosing checked Pressure Tested I don't want to sell the car...
www.seatcupra.net
My TSI 180 had its coolant pump replaced last autumn but continued to lose coolant this year. Local garage has tried flushing out the heater matrix a couple of times but still not getting any hot air, so looks like a replacement is in order.
Hopefully have warm air available in time for winter as almost got hypothermia driving the other evening; ambient temperature was 1.5 Celsius and my spectacles started fogging up so had to put the air-con back on ?
Found another thread where OP describes similar symptoms to my car...
2014 Leon FR Coolant issues
So I have a 2014 DSG 150bhp 2.0 tdi and coolant is disappearing..... I've read plenty online about this issue but not many have resolved without getting rid.... Here is what I have done EGR replaced Water pump replaced New bottle All hosing checked Pressure Tested I don't want to sell the car...
My TSI 180 had its coolant pump replaced last autumn but continued to lose coolant this year. Local garage has tried flushing out the heater matrix a couple of times but still not getting any hot air, so looks like a replacement is in order.
Hopefully have warm air available in time for winter as almost got hypothermia driving the other evening; ambient temperature was 1.5 Celsius and my spectacles started fogging up so had to put the air-con back on ?
Just to confirm, the coolant header tank on your car has "MIT SILIKAT" written on it and the silicate is contained in a nylon "rectangular tea bag" in that header tank.
I though the heater matrix blocking issue with silica was just related to TDI's?Found another thread where OP describes similar symptoms to my car...
2014 Leon FR Coolant issues
So I have a 2014 DSG 150bhp 2.0 tdi and coolant is disappearing..... I've read plenty online about this issue but not many have resolved without getting rid.... Here is what I have done EGR replaced Water pump replaced New bottle All hosing checked Pressure Tested I don't want to sell the car...
My TSI 180 had its coolant pump replaced last autumn but continued to lose coolant this year. Local garage has tried flushing out the heater matrix a couple of times but still not getting any hot air, so looks like a replacement is in order.
Hopefully have warm air available in time for winter as almost got hypothermia driving the other evening; ambient temperature was 1.5 Celsius and my spectacles started fogging up so had to put the air-con back on ?
That is why I asked that last question, okay the casting sand hopefully seem to have been a short manufacturing period in engine build for some TDIs, but at least some petrol engines got "MIT SILIKAT" header tanks, my daughter's May 2019 Cupra certainly has that, though I'd need to have another look-see to see if it has a proper porous container or something that looks a lot like a rectangular tea bag!
Edit:- I seem to have failed completely to get people to assist in working out why/when "MIT SILIKAT" is included in initial factory build in terms of when, which engine type(s) and with which version of VW Group coolant. This is all still a bit strange to me, VW Group must know the answer to that, and why, and also why and when or if they dropped the need for having to have a back up store of a chemical that was released slowly into the coolant to extend its service life which never seems to be defined.
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My 1.8 TSI 180 is mit silikat ? Car is currently in garage but here’s photos I took before topping up the G13 last month.
I have one and really useful, (found out my loft insulation is lacking around my eves - job for next year!) just remember then measure the emissivity of an object which is different for different coloured - so they are only really accurate measuring the temperature of black objects, but I find them fine for comparative measurements between similar colour materials.
Googling Coolant leak EA888 engine seems a popular topic!
Try thermostat housing?
⚠️ALL S3 8V OWNERS COOLANT LEAK!!!!!!
Hi I don't own a s3 but I thought I'd shine some light on this as it is a serious problem this affects most if not all EA888 engine which includes : audi s3 8v facelift /pre facelift Vw golf gti mk7 /mk7.5 Golf r mk7/mk7.5 Seat Leon Cupra 280/300 Some of you owners may know that the cars using a...
Local garage replaced the thermostat housing (along with temperature sensor and water pump) last summer.Googling Coolant leak EA888 engine seems a popular topic!
Try thermostat housing?
⚠️ALL S3 8V OWNERS COOLANT LEAK!!!!!!
Hi I don't own a s3 but I thought I'd shine some light on this as it is a serious problem this affects most if not all EA888 engine which includes : audi s3 8v facelift /pre facelift Vw golf gti mk7 /mk7.5 Golf r mk7/mk7.5 Seat Leon Cupra 280/300 Some of you owners may know that the cars using a...www.audi-sport.net
At least my Leon is slightly cheaper to repair than those Audis!
It measures surface temp via the IR so can sort of measure air temp but only on the surfaces around it.
Great for checking radiator temps, how hot my tea is etc. You just start zapping stuff.
On other VAG forums, they say you've got the silica bag if your car has climate control. Don't know how true that is.
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