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Leon Heating Only Working On Passenger Side
- Thread starter vixonss
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- help or advice
Heater matrix's are very seasonal in price - aftermarket versions seem to range from £50-60 in the summer to double/tripple in the winter.
The OEM part is several hundred.
Does see quite a cheap price to pay a garage labour + parts for a new heater matrix.
heater matrix was replaced however my dad sourced the parts, so it was probably a £40 unit. if it’s around a grand at this point i’ll just run it into the ground.
has 170k on the clock and i can’t justify putting that much money into such a high mileage car.
the mechanic is a family friends so it’s a cut rate, so if i’m reading this right there’s summer and winter built matrix’s? if this is the case could you possibly help me find one that awful and packs in after a few months.
also unrelated question, but does the heater matrix control the air con too? i had my air con gassed and it was ice cold for a month and it reverted back to just cooler air from outside.
Agree with @MartinThorn. The matrix is about £80 plus a couple of hours to change it (if you are familiar with the DIY fix method). Everyone else charges £450 to £1000+ due to the labour involved if you take the dash out. It may have just been flushed and got clogged up again over time.
If they did change it, that was bargain but it should last a lot longer than 7 months.
Something doesn't sound quite right.
he changed it showed me the old one and the debris that had clogged up.
he also fitted a new coolant reservoir.
i know that there’s an air bubble somewhere within the coolant as i can hear it gurgle.
i’ll just assume the matrix that was purchased is just a bad unit, and i’ll have to have a look at other units.
No, same part - just that the price tends to vary depending on the season and demand!
You find heating parts cheaper in the summer and cooling parts cheaper in the winter - and visa versa.
The heater matrix is just a mini radiator in your dash fed by engine coolant.
You also have a separate air con heat exchanger - cooled by your air con compressor.
There are flaps which control air flow & how much heat/how much cooling and the position of air (face/screen/feet)
If your not getting heating or cooling then maybe your flaps are stuck - try cycling hot to cold, face to feet, left to right ect.. several times. your can also perform a flap motor calibration -
Yes, I know! Mine was about £60 but then £20 for coolant then a few hours labour - that would come to at least hundreds of pounds unless done as a favour almost for free(labour).
Agree with you too! A new matrix shouldn't block up in a few months.. something else wrong (probably!).
I've tried calibrating the vents several times and to no avail.
However, today when I left for work I was greeted with this lovely message.
After inspecting the reservoir, the coolant that is visible was empty and i needed to refill a few hundred milliliters.
This also was not the fix. It has left me curious as to where the coolant could have possibly gone. No obvious leaks, head gasket is fine.
It is a shame as such a problem makes you fall out of love with a car.
I had this message after I had an extra aux radiator fitted. When I first got the car back all great then in my case the heating did not work well at all (but all round not just on one side). I inquired about the cost of new Matrix and as it was summer gave it a miss, Then after about 2 - 3 weeks I got this error message, Filled it up and then the heater started working and no more loosing coolant.
From what I read this could have been an air lock (although its supposed to self clear these) and I put it down to the air being pushed out through the overflow tank and pushing out the fluid. As I say in my case one topup fixed the issue hope it works for you
From what I read this could have been an air lock (although its supposed to self clear these) and I put it down to the air being pushed out through the overflow tank and pushing out the fluid. As I say in my case one topup fixed the issue hope it works for you
Hi, yes I also had an air bubble, I believe it has gone.
Yesterday my car seems to have drank around 300ml of coolant, it has repeated this again today. So there has to be a leak somewhere right?
Seriously considering just part exing my car in at this point, let someone else pick up the tab.
To be fair, you have 170k miles on the clock - you have to expect some maintenance/fixing at that mileage from any car. Does it have full service record - has it had coolant changes?
Have a close look around the header tank/cap - can you see any liquid/coolant around that area?
Coolant can leak externally or internally.
Externally, coolant pumps have been known to leak - so new pump and timing belt required, look for dampness around the timing belt cover (has it ever had a timing belt?) obviously coolant pipes/joints/radiators could potentially leak - so need careful inspection.
Internally, EGR coolers can leak - and air to water intercoolers can leak - so the engine would burn the coolant.
The dealer said full service history, it has part history they are missing about 3 years of history in the book.
I know that i’ve obviously changed the coolant, and originally the coolant was a light green colour however, when it’s in the reservoir it goes a dark brown after so long. not sure if this is normal?
Header tank / cap i assume you mean the coolant reservoir where you top it up? if so that is fine i had a new unit installed.
Not sure where the timing belt is but i’ll have my dad take a look when he gets back from work. in regards to whether it’s had a new belt it’s currently on its 4th belt+pump changed 9k miles ago so should be fine.
My dad said he just thinks the coolants evaporating within the engine it’s self, so would the egr and or intercooler cause this? like i’ve already said the head gasket seems fine doesn’t have the mayonnaise like substance on it at all.
Timing belt/pump is under the plastic cover on the left side of the engine.
If the engine is 'consuming' the coolant then usual suspect would be either EGR cooler, intercooler or head gasket.
EGR cooler is down the back of the engine and a pain to get to.
Intercooler is the aluminum 'box' on the front of the engine, the thing with all the pipes over it. Probably easiest to test this to see if this is leaking - if not then I would look at EGR cooler.
this one's interesting - leaking coolant pipes at the back of the engine:
Intercooler leak:
Sounds like an airlock. As the trapped air escapes from the cooling system via the expansion bottle, the coolant level drops as the coolant replaces the space previously taken up by the trapped air.
I appreciate all this information, I'll take a look with my dad when he finishes work.
If we cant find anything and its still leaking I'll take it to a garage and see what they think the cause is.
Seems to only have started losing coolant as of recent, my guess is it has something to do with the matrix that was fitted as I'm certain the coolant didnt drop whilst the old matrix was in there.
Would this be continuous?
I can hear the gurgling sounds regularly, but used to just think nothing of it assuming the air pocket would just work its way out.
Gurgling stopped one start up, but returns a few miles into a drive.
Gurgling is the noise of trapped air escaping and being replaced by coolant from the expansion bottle.
Should it be consistent? I thought surely the bubble would just be filled out by the coolant?
Does the system need to be bled and then filled up properly?
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