bobapple Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Hello gents,I had an odd little problem this weekend, I was driving on the motorway and all of a sudden the car started to fill with what I first thought was smoke from the heater vents, so did an emergency type maneuver to the hard shoulder shut her down and proceeded to pop and lift bonnet with some precaution to avail no fire phew I thought. Gingerly started the car back up no smoke so I set off on my merry way. So few hundred yards down the road happens again but then I get a smell of more like steam / condensation so I shut the heater off which stops the steam. So my thoughts immediately point to matrix leaking or some pipe leading to it is ? has anyone had a similar problem and point me in the right direction I have time over xmas if it's not too difficult . Many Thanks For Reading. Si Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevie_b Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Almost certainly the heater matrix (or pipe to the matrix, but that's less likely) has sprung a leak. Check your coolant level to confirm this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Konrad Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Yes it looks like heater matrix is leaking in your case. It's not very complicated job to do, it's just very time consuming and you will need to take all front dash out to get to bloody thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Wilson Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Classic heater matrix failure, have you recently topped up the anti freeze for the winter? AF is very searching and can make a weak rad or heater matrix fail completely. If you join the two heater pipes from the engine together, (rear top of the engine, one is partly over the plug cover) with a bit of copper pipe, you can stop the leak and continue to use the car, but you will have no hot air. There's a write up with photos on this forum, showing what's involved in changing the matrix, it's an ugly job. I would use a genuine Toyota one, the el cheapo ones are a much inferior core, and don't throw out anything like as much heat. The genuine ones are dear though If you aren't in a rush i would do it for you, but would have to work on it between other jobs, so would need it for a few days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dnk Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 Genuine are now £411 inc vat retail Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Wilson Posted November 21, 2011 Share Posted November 21, 2011 About the same price as Volvo ones.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobapple Posted November 21, 2011 Author Share Posted November 21, 2011 Thanks for the replys gents, bit worried though as I continued to drive the car over the weekend whoops, I kept an eye on my oil water temps and they stayed normal though. Chris any chance you can email me a rough price on the whole job, as trying to save for those new tubbies at the mo and not far from the figure but obviously this will put me back a bit. Again thanks Si. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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