GolfGTIforum.co.uk
Model specific boards => Golf mk2 => Topic started by: jamie_pyrite on 11 January 2010, 18:57
-
Hi all, so the matrix has gone on my mk2 and it leaked all over the footwell. I put the heater controls on cold and ran the car and no more leaked it (or that I could see!)
The car has been sat for a week and I've just had a look and there's water in the footwells still. Do I have to somehow cut off or bypass the matrix? ie. even when the heaters are on cold, coolant will pass through it and into the leak?
I'm not doing the matrix swap til march but still need to drive it without a wet floor every time! :) Thanks
-
you could join the two hoses together with a bit of angled copper pipe?
-
^^ As said above, the coolant is always running through the matrix, the heater controls only move flaps to direct and mix the air they do not control the coolant flow at all. Make sure you top up with antifreeze especially in this cold weather.
-
to be honest, I think the lack of anti-freeze is what blew it! Before I picked the car up the core plug had popped out due to not enough anti-freeze.. then once he got it running again, the matrix blew!
I'll have a look for some copper :)
-
ive bypassed one before using copper pipe between the two matrix hoses, it will be fine for a temp fix, will just be cold in the car!
-
Why you leaving it till march?
If you never done one before it could be done in 5 hours i would say. sunday job!
-
Because I'm at Uni and the car is just sat on my drive at home, no MOT or anything :) I won't need it until around April/May. I just need it so it doesn't piss out every time I want to move the car!
Hopefully the copper pipe works ok. If I can be bothered, I'm going to start stripping things tomorrow and just do the matrix bit by bit every time I'm home for the weekend!
-
Why you leaving it till march?
If you never done one before it could be done in 5 hours i would say. sunday job!
The matrix is a 5 hour Sunday job, but then there's the nightmare of pulling up the carpets, chucking out and replacing the probably-rotten sound-proofing and drying out the passenger footwell which should all really be done with the heaterbox out.
It took me two days to dry mine out properly in the height of summer, so god knows how long it would take to dry in the winter.
If you don't do it properly you're leaving yourself open to a rusty floorpan (if it's not already rusted)
-
Just re-read all your posts jamie - if it has happened recently, get the heater stripped down once it is bypassed and get start to dry it now - if you're lucky the soundproofing may not be rotten, and it'll just need drying out. It should still be driveable throughout the job as long as the matrix is bypassed.
-
As above get the carpet out etc.
-
Plan is to get up early and start stripping stuff off and get a couple of hairdryers on the carpets! Bypassing went well. I found the perfect piece of angled copper pipe in the garage.
-
I would try and get the carpet out, I would suspect the foam underneath will be soaked.
-
Indeed the underlay was completely soaked through!! What's the best thing to do about replacing it? I have a load of top quality house underlay I could use, or is that a bit too pikey?
So I got most of it off today, everything undone but ran out of time before pulling the matrix out. On the main section there's a really big flap, this was cable tied shut! Where it pivots, at the bottom looks broken. What's meant to be attached to there?
I'm guessing at some point, something has snapped off there and the owner has just decided to cabletie the air flap shut?!
-
The underlay is for sound-proofing purposes, so it's really up to your judgement on what you want to replace it with. The only benefit that I can see that the original underlay has over some other generic stuff is that it has a spashproof top which will stop most of the water from general use (i.e. from your shoes) from soaking through the carpet and directly into the underlay. I guess it would be easy to create something similar.
I got mine from a MK3 and cut it to roughly the right size.
Check the floorpan for rust, treat any you can see, and make sure it is uber-dry before you start building it up again. I let mine dry over a couple of days, and sprayed some waxoyl in there for good measure to tease out the last of the moisture and matrix-proof the floorpan for the future :smiley:
I'm guessing the really big flap you're referring to is the temperature mixer on the front of the heaterbox? The control levers are connected via cables to some gearing on the left hand side of the heaterbox, which controls the flap. If anything on there looks broken, I'd look at replacing the whole heaterbox. Anyone breaking a later Mk2 should be able to supply one for a reasonable price, though as you now probably realise, it's a bit of a ballache to get out. If you do replace it, make sure you replace the heaterbox and controls as one - once you disconnect the control cables, you're going to struggle to get them lined up properly again.
I really don't understand why a previous owner cable-tied it shut, unless it was flapping around. Even so, if you strip it down enough to get to the flap, then why not replace the thing?? What's the point in doing a half-arsed job, when only it only takes a little more effort to do it properly??
-
The underlay is for sound-proofing purposes, so it's really up to your judgement on what you want to replace it with. The only benefit that I can see that the original underlay has over some other generic stuff is that it has a spashproof top which will stop most of the water from general use (i.e. from your shoes) from soaking through the carpet and directly into the underlay. I guess it would be easy to create something similar.
I got mine from a MK3 and cut it to roughly the right size.
Check the floorpan for rust, treat any you can see, and make sure it is uber-dry before you start building it up again. I let mine dry over a couple of days, and sprayed some waxoyl in there for good measure to tease out the last of the moisture and matrix-proof the floorpan for the future :smiley:
I'm guessing the really big flap you're referring to is the temperature mixer on the front of the heaterbox? The control levers are connected via cables to some gearing on the left hand side of the heaterbox, which controls the flap. If anything on there looks broken, I'd look at replacing the whole heaterbox. Anyone breaking a later Mk2 should be able to supply one for a reasonable price, though as you now probably realise, it's a bit of a ballache to get out. If you do replace it, make sure you replace the heaterbox and controls as one - once you disconnect the control cables, you're going to struggle to get them lined up properly again.
I really don't understand why a previous owner cable-tied it shut, unless it was flapping around. Even so, if you strip it down enough to get to the flap, then why not replace the thing?? What's the point in doing a half-arsed job, when only it only takes a little more effort to do it properly??
Thanks for the info! I'm going to leave the underlay out to dry for a few weeks and see if it smells or not! There is surface rust so I'll be treating that tomorrow. Just a sand back then some hammerite should do the trick!
I've no idea about the cable tie either. Such a strange bodge.. I'll get it all out tomorrow and work out what's what and if I can get away with not replacing the whole thing!
I've obviously knocked a wire or something because tonight the alarm started going off constantly and wouldn't turn off! Battery has been disconnected for now..
-
Well I've got it out! Bit of a pig of a job. Here's some pics to show the heater box. The first pic show the big flap that was cable tied closed:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/pyritemusic/IMAGE_052.jpg)
and this shows where the cables mount onto the flap pivots:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v698/pyritemusic/IMAGE_053.jpg)
Better see if anyone is breaking a mk2! Unless this is fixable? There are three cables that go from the controls to the box. Am I missing anything?
Thanks
-
Better see if anyone is breaking a mk2! Unless this is fixable? There are three cables that go from the controls to the box. Am I missing anything?
http://www.dubnortheast.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,4435.0.html
:)