My question was really a misunderstanding, I thought the structure in front of the dash must also come out - but now I see it is part of the steel body.

I wonder if the steering wheel really needs to come out. If you unscrew the steering column (four nuts) and rest it on the floor, the dash would also clear out. I think the steering column must be dropped anyway as the stalk unit is in the way.

Next thing I'm going to do is to pick up a pair of old sofa cushions from the trash at the recycling center. More comfortable to sit on the floor when you don't need to worry about the airbag wires for the seats.

The airbag came out after drilling the four small rivets and pulling the lower edge of the cover out out (scary!). The wire was pretty long and loose, so no risk of breaking it really. The three rivets on lower edge also need to be drilled to get the harness/circuitry off. It looks like there are small provisions for steel clips, so it might be possible to replace these 3 rivets with clips & screws.

I also drilled the rivets in far left corner of dash as some were already falling apart, so the plastic structure holding the fuse box was left into the car. Just need to figure out what kind of screws I need to fix it properly when putting it back together.

Now that the dash is out, I still cannot see how to get the heater out, but never mind, the fight goes on. And yes, paid less than 30 euros for new core, including shipping.

Right now: pretty amazed that aircon tubes wiggled out of the car. The thin one needs replacing, rotten at the hold down located under battery. Check yours!

Breathing a sigh of relief that mine doesn't have air con. I never want to do this job!

This thread is a treasure! Many valuable hints along the way.

The heater assembly really sticks to the sound proofing material! It seems the coolant softens the material and in the end my heater assembly came out with a torn piece of mat permanently attached to the core! It didn't take enormous force, but determined pulling was really needed.

Luckily I noticed that the heater wiring and the airbag box cable (yellow) were bundled together with a cable tie. By all means it should be possible to cut that tie as soon as the center console is out. The cable tie was located very close the connector under the heater. With that tie cut, it should be safe to pull the assembly.

When pulling the passenger airbag cover out, the attachment clips will break. They are designed to snap so that no sharp pieces will fly out when the bag explodes.

Replacement is fiat part no. 46460519. BMW/Mini part 51458146760 is about exactly the same, fits perfectly and might be easier to obtain. I paid 75 cents per piece at the local BMW dealership. The BMW part needs to be trimmed shorter, but that's it. You will need two of them.

Hi Richit. Usually there are only two causes for grinding gears. Well maybe three if the driver is new to standard shift. Clutch adjustment, either a worn disc and not engaging properly (needs replacing)or slightly worn and in need of a proper adjustment. The other common problem is worn synchro gears which are usually brass or some other soft metal.I believe the Fiat box to be quite robust so I would first check the adjustment on the throwout bearing.To much slack on the pedal can and will cause grinding. hope this helps.

richit said:

Hi, has anyone suffered a coolant leak inside the car from the bottom of the heater unit? I've had my 2002 Barch for 18 months and it's always leaked a little when the heater control was on anything but cold. Yesterday the little leak turned into a torrent. There was more than a litre of coolant in the driver's footwell. This morning I attempted to remove the unit to see what's going on, but it's a nightmare. I can't see how to take it out. I have the centre consul out. It still looks very happy to stay where it is.

I've decided to bypass the matrix for now by re-routing the water pipes under the bonnet, as it's very hot here at the moment so I don't need heaters for a while, but I do want to use the car.

Any suggestions? THANKS!

Click to expand...

I would also like to know how to bypass my heater pipes

in the engine bay search for 2 ruber hoses that come from engine and go in the bulkhead , unclamp them and remove from bulkhead , find a short pipe from same diameter and conect them into each other clamp it and check coolant liquid before and after runing temperature , check for leaks . its done !

I'm undigging this thread, because I'm in the middle of stripping my goddamn car to get into the heater matrix.
No wonder why so many barchettas ended on scrapyard, considering what kind of materials were used and how they protected the car from rust.
The floor in my barchetta is pretty much gone and needs tons of welding, it was protected with a very thin layer of primer and I doubt there is zinc coating there. The worst part is the rubber/PVC floor which had a layer of sponge to dampen noise and insulate the floor. The problem is: a leaking heater matrix and disintegrating window seals will guarantee everything will turn into rust in a few years. The sponge insulation IS NOT WATERPROOF. It sucks all the moisture and keep it locked, making floor panels marinate in it. Everything is so crunchy it makes me want to meet the guy responsible for that poor design and sell him a hefty punch straight in the face.
The problem I have is not the floor that needs replacing, but the person responsible for designing the heater unit to be so buried under overlapping pieces of plastic it's impossible to take out without removing a half of the car from the interior. I'm in the place where I have the unit loosely moving (removed 2x nuts from engine bay and 3 nuts from interior), but I'm not able to pull this thing out of the car. I refuse to believe I need to remove the whole goddamn dashboard to get the unit out.


According to the service manual, which is surprisingly missing a lot of info and is not helpful in some places, I need to get the whole dashboard out to access three bolts, to get the vents out of the way, to remove the heater unit:


Can someone confirm this insanity? Isn't there a possibility to remove the heater unit without completely destroying the entire interior of the car? I see some people mention drilling rivets, removing the airbag and so on, and I really don't like this idea.

I've not had the pleasure? of trying to replace the heater matrix. I had a small leak and chose to try a radiator sealing additive and that has solved my problem for a number of years now.

As far as I know after researching, and then deciding on the sealing additive, the whole of the dasboard, centre console, heater unit, etc. have to be removed to be able to extract and replace the heater matix unit.

I think one of the reasons the matrix fails is because over time (as there is no filter) dust, debris, pollen, leaf fragments get drawn into the assembly and congregate at the base of the matrix. They get damp, build up, never fully dry out and resulting corrosion occurs.

I managed to get the heater unit out... What I can say, if you need to unscrew sunscreens from windshield frame, to get the plastic pillar cover out, to get the dashboard out, to get the vents out, to get the heater uni out, then you know it's a terrible design. Overall took me around 11 hours to get all panels out of the way and pull the heater unit out, it's a nightmare of a job.
Service manual is useless - there are additional screws and rivets that hold the dashboard. drilling some rivets make it easier - no need to get the fuse box out.
When I'm going to assemble my car back, I'll definitely skip some screws that are redundant. If I ever have to get the dashboard out again, it will be much easier...

I hope you took pictures and step records of the dissasembly. If not then when you put it all back. Would make a nice Guide!

I'll try to document as much as possible, not sure if it's going to be a full guide, as I didn't plan to do it, so the ship has already sailed...
Maybe I'll try to dump some photos with tips, how-to etc. It's ridiculous how much it took me to remove the side vents from the dashboard to get to the hidden, "secret" bolds holding it.
Also, I fear the moment I'll have to put it back together - as I refused to disassembly both fuse/relay boxes and remove the whole dashboard from the car (everything is still connected), I had to fish the heater unit out of the tangled jungle of cables. putting it back will be fun, yoo hoo.

That is a horendous job! At dealer costs the car would be a write off!

Another very valuable thread with "ancient" beginnings, thanks for building and keeping it alive

I unfortunately need to follow in these footsteps, I found telltale puddle traces under the matrix and some coolant under the mat in the footwell... Any additional photos, insights, and/or workarounds would be much appreciated, @jimmen17 and others in the Matrix League.

Any additional jobs that should be done at the same time?
1) I will take a look at the floor rust situation (with dread). What about replacing the original moisture absorbing sound dampening mats with a water repellant equivalent (thickness, type, manufacturer)? Perhaps keeping the old and laying the new underneath, simply breaking the contact between sheet metal and moist mat (I wonder how much mildew is in the old mats though)?
2) How did/would you go about rust-protecting the floor (three layers of zink paint/primer)?
2) I'm also considering laying out cables for a potential future amp and/or sub woofer (not sure if that will ever happen tho..).
3) Will be installing some sort of DAB antenna (either on windshield or replacing the old sad manual antenna with a DAB AM/FM combo?)

Thanks,
tjr

tjr said:

1) I will take a look at the floor rust situation (with dread). What about replacing the original moisture absorbing sound dampening mats with a water repellant equivalent (thickness, type, manufacturer)? Perhaps keeping the old and laying the new underneath, simply breaking the contact between sheet metal and moist mat (I wonder how much mildew is in the old mats though)?

Click to expand...

Not on our "B" but on a couple of other Fiats I replaced that horrible under carpet matting with 8 to 10mm Neoprene sheets cut to size.

If when water gets in the sheets DON'T absorb the water so you can lift the carpet (not remove) pull the sheet out and then mop up with a towel. After that a small fan heater or hair dryer to blow dry out.

On the "B" you could do this once the floor matting is out but as I seem to recall that horrible absorbent material is bonded/stuck to the back and also I think adds some strenght / rigitity. However adding additional neoprene matting would help keep the absorbant backing off the metal floor pan thus reducing absorbtion should you get a leak.

The nightmarish descriptions can be confirmed from here as well...

Nothing is outlandishly complicated, just seriously time consuming. As mentioned previously, the steering wheel column is easily lowered by removing the four screws holding it, which simplifies removing the dashboard, perhaps the steering wheel (and airbag) thereby could be left attached(?). I also drilled out the rivets and left the two fuse boxes in the car.

Concerning the steering wheel, for me/the b-95 it was good disconnecting the steering wheel; the contact points for the airbag and horn were showing corrosion (on non-stainless parts).

While doing the matrix I highly recommend taking the extra 30 minutes (top) to remove the seats and disconnecting the steering column at the floor. Thereby you can easily remove the plastic floor mat/tub in one piece.

Why add to the workload you ask? Well (nothing revolutionary/new here):
- the Fiat barchetta should be renamed Fiat vasca da bagno (blame Google), any liquid will find its way to the bottom of the tub. That is fine as long as the drain permits the liquid to exit and the enamel is good and thick. The designers/engineers did a good job, there are at least 7 drains/exits in the tub and make all the difference, if they work. Problems 1) Only three of seven drains were functional on the b-95, all on the passenger side (they are easily opened/corrected). 2) as mentioned by others the rust protection on the tub bottom is insufficient. In my case the b-95 has fortunately lived a blessed life, so rust was there, but limited.
- the electrical seat connections live an exposed life, they need a good clean and some dielectric grease
- the bitumen(?) sheeting had mostly turned to crumbles on the b-95 and thus lost its any function of 1) noise dampening and 2) rust protection. It's easy enough cleaning out the crumbles, but the part that is still intact is difficult to remove. I will test the dry ice isopropyl alcohol combo (cool experiment if nothing else). Why not leave the sticky parts? Well they are 29 years old and no longer moisture proof, I believe it's better to take the time remove as much as possible, address unseen potential rust, and rust protect the floor before adding new butyl sheets*.
- Cute curiosity, I also found an old deserted mouse bedroom and kitchen between the gear shift lever and handbrake (nutshells and properly shredded blue hand paper towels). Fortunately no identified rodent damage (maybe addressed by previous owner)!

*I'm going for butyl alu sheets because of the claims; "In addition to delivering improved sound deadening over asphalt, the butyl-rubber chemistry does not emit the undesirable smells commonly experienced with asphalt-based deadeners at elevated temperatures. As for durability, the butyl-rubber sound deadeners does not have the issues of hardening, cracking or reduced adhesion over time like.." "..asphalt-based products", plus the claimed improved rigidity (the elevated thickish aluminum foil). Butyl sheets are a mess to remove just like bitumen, with a little luck, I'm not going to be the one to remove them in 29 years...