Technical Heater Matrix Died

[a1ant]

Well, what a fun morning I've had!

Driving along this morning nice and warm, when all off a sudden bit of steam and the smell of coolant fills the cabin.

SOO.. pulled over, checked, and as expected coolant reservoir totally empty. In fact in the space of about 100 yards it had emptied almost the entire cooling system. After a quick cursory check in the bay I'm satisfied that there's no leaks in there, so back to the car to check if its the matrix and.....

Fresh warm collant has filled my footwells! Lovely!

Anyway did a temporay job of trying to block the circuit to the heater matrix, refilled the collant system and then set about bleeding it. Of course i have no tools with me and the rad bleed valve is too close to the engine for the one screwdriver I had, and the boost solonoid is just about in the way for the one spanner I had. Anyway, managed it with my front door key in the end.

Long story short, made it home and only lost a slight amount of coolant in the process, but its new heater matrix time I think! Ive not come across this with the new Bravo before and am pretty sure its just a one off manufacturing blip, or even the hose has just popped off (wasnt going to rip my dash apart on the side of the road even though i wanted to! lol).

Anyone else had similar?

Alan

 

[Hellcat]

Not seen that before but worth getting it back into the dealer ASAP... coolant and electrics don't mix!

 

[Ulpian]

It's not uncommon with Doblos. Quality control at the matrix factory I suppose.

 

[Big Black Stilo]

this is a bit worrying, but so far a one off on here

 

[a1ant]

Right, bit of an update in case anyone has a similar problem in the future.

Turns out the heater matrix itself was fine, couldn't see anything wrong with it at all, but one of the coolant pipes to the heater matrix that comes through the bulkhead had been chaffing on part of the dash support assembly. As a result it eventually went pop.

Just one of those things, and all is back to normal now.

Alan

 

[paulscatt]

Thanks for the update Alan. I had a matrix go on my Marea a few years back whilst driving down the M6. Gave me the shock of my life. Suddenly the car was filled with what i thought was smoke . I got straight onto the hard shoulder and abandoned ship ASAP Really thought the car was about to explode

Took a couple of minutes to realise what had happened.