Yesterday I noticed that I had a leak dripping down on to the passenger side footwell, then it started coming down on the drivers side!

And this morning I had what looked like smoke coming out from under the dashboard(hopefully its steam...sh*t my pants at the time cos I havent got a fire extingusher).

The stuff thats leaking is green so I assume its coolant.

I know some of you guys have had this problem before and was wondering:

1/ If the car can be driven without causing more damage?

2/ How much did it cost and how long to fix ?

3/ Did the dash have to come off(as some tech writeups say no need)?

4/ I do have to add more coolant in the normal place due to the leak?

 

I've just got the Z back from SE following 5 months of it being off the road and was looking forward to meeting everyone at Billing Aquadrome! You cant beat my Zed's timing!

Ta,

Trev.

Hi Trev,

 

So you have experienced the half a year stop-over in Essex aswell then eh?

 

Right, firstly, this went on mine. Exactly the same symptoms that you've described.

 

Heater matrix is about £250ish, not overly sure but think about that much. Whole dash will have to come out if you have it done at Nelson Mandela, something like 8 hrs. labour I think!!! I had mine done at Arriva, managed to get the heater matrix on the warranty and a percentage of the labour paid also. You may have to have your A/C re-charged aswell which pushes the bill up more!

 

Mate, I would not advise too much driving with it on the way out! I drove mine down to Kent from Stevenage coz my Nan was on her death bed in Margate Hos. so had no choice! On the way back up on the Friday night on my way back to de Wales(aiiii!) it went on the M25. Car temperature shot up and my feet felt nice and warm e.g. coolant pissed all over my feet!

 

I would stongly suggest getting it done asap, I have seen the posts/tech. docs. on TT.net or somewhere else that say you can do this without taking the dash out. It is quite fiddly though, but obviously can be done! Depends whether you want to sort it yourself.

 

Later

 

 

Tim

;-)

 

 

[This message has been edited by Timmy_Turbo (edited 22-07-2001).]

if you turn the heater to full on cold, it should close the matrix, but not ideal solution.

 

best short term solution is to get a small piece of pipe and connect the in and out feed together from inside the bonnet.

 

at the back of the engine there are two pipes very close together that go into the car, i'm sure you can work out which ones i mean.

 

it looks a bit fiddly, and might be a knuckle skinning job, but if you dont want to change the matrix yet, tha is the best bet

 

the AUS site has instructions on how to remove without taking dash out, but they both look like bitch jobs....

 

oh yeah, and bad luck Trev, that sucks

 

------------------

UK 92 TT White

Mongoose K&N AVCR

KYB Eibach

Cheers Tim/Craig,

I found this on the Aus 300ZX site http://www4.bs.monash.edu.au/oz32/Tech/heater/heatercore.htm

They reckon you can fit a coolant bypass pipe:

(One thing that will help a lot is a by-pass hose to connect from the engine outlet to the inlet. This will allow you to drive while working on the heater core. This one I picked up at the local auto shop and cut the ends off for length. No reason you couldn't use some flexible hose.)

 

If I can sort out a bypass pipe I may be able to drive and limit the damage, wont have heating but hopefully will have dry feet!

Cheers

Trev.

 

[This message has been edited by Trey (edited 22-07-2001).]

Mine was a nightmare, noticed it dribbling down the carpet in the passenger footwell, and as Craig says, changing the control makes a hell of a difference! Mine started to gush and then when I started to mess around with the temperature control it stopped. However, that journey down to Kent was not one I would EVER want to repeat. It was caining it down outside raining, windows were steaming up like I had Bridget Bardot in the back with John Holmes! LOL! More I messed with the heater, the worse it got!

 

Then on the journey back my Bro rang me up just before the Dartford tunnel and advised me to be careful. Said that if it goes belly up car will overheat, jinxed that conversation, literally as I got out of the Dartford tunnel and a little way up the M25 it went. First thing I noticed was the temp. shot up to max. then nice warm foot feeling.

 

Have you got any kinda warranty or anything Trev??? If not, I would say get some quotes off Nelsons(spits on the floor in rebellion!) unless anyone else on here will take it on! Not much in the way of alternative choices!

 

 

Tim

:-

Tim, I get the feeling you must have busted just about everything on that car !!!!!

Yep, even the boot wouldn't shut on me the same day the matrix started to snot all over the footwell! LOL!

 

My car is probably 3 or 4 Z's all thrown together by a "Cut an' Shut" shop in Czhek Republic, now carrying out illegal work where the old Skoda factory was before VWAG built a proper one for them! LMAO!

 

 

Timmy "only person with a Skoda Z32" non Twin Tub

 

;-)

 

P.S. Does also mention in the FSH that the car belonged to Billy Smarts Circus at some point...as the clown car! LOL!