Technical New Matrix leaking

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Technical New Matrix leaking

My mechanic took pics of the matrix install due to the absolute nightmare he had with it. Said it was a horrible job. I will ask when I next see him for the pics.
 
OK I'll spend a while going through it and try to give a step-by-step guide(y)

G.M.
 
Not sure where the guides Section is, but if the moderators want to use this perhaps they could move it.(y)

Changing a heater matrix in a Punto Mk 1
OK here goes. First of all make sure you have everything to hand before you start, as nothing is worse that having to keep going in and out of the house/garage to find tools that you need.
Disconnect the negative terminal to the battery.
You will need to get to the pipe work being the air/petrol intake and it’s easier if you remove these first and stow them safe.
You won’t want to lose your coolant if you can help it, and the best thing to do is to get a 4 inch piece of 15mm copper tube, and after taking off the clips that hold the coolant pipes onto the matrix, use the pipe to join the two together, thus forming a circuit. You will lose a small amount, but not much.
While you are in the engine bay, in the area of those pipes you will see that they come through plastic gasket with several bolts holding it in place. I made the mistake of taking these off in the belief that they held the heater in place. They don’t! they simply hold that plastic gasket in place and you can remove the matrix without taking all this off if you are careful. You will need help guiding the pipes back through these holes when you reassemble everything, but it’s a bugger trying to re-fit that gasket.
Looking from the front of the car you need to look to the left of this gasket, underneath the sound proofing, where you will find a bolt with a nut with a very big washer behind it. This is one of the bolts that holds the heater unit in place and needs to be taken off.
On the far right of the engine bay you will see another of these bolts with a large washer and nut on it. This is one of the bolts that holds the blower in place and you will need to undo this as well, because you will find it easier to take the blower motor and heater housing off in one complete unit instead of taking them apart. They are a bit fiddly to put back, but a lot easier than trying to join them back together afterwards.

Inside the car.

Take off the steering wheel, after first levering off the horn button and pulling out the block connector for the horn.
I have two big chocolate tins (Roses) that I placed in each foot well to hold all the bolts that came out and that way you don’t lose anything.
Take out the instrument panel and unplug the four block connectors that are fitted to the back.
Remove the steering column plastic housing and place them all on the back seat out of the way. I used a digital camera to photograph these plugs so that I could look refer to the pictures when reassembling them.
Remove the 2 screws that hold the fuse box cover in place and you will see a large bolt head (½ inch socket). There are also 3 bolts that hold the fuse box in place and I removed those to allow the fuse box to hang out of the way.
Remove all the screws that hold the heating facia in place, and don’t forget the one being the middle knob (the one that controls the blower speed)
I removed the lighter housing the first time around but found that this was unnecessary, but it’s up to you.
Remove the grills on the blowers (I took the grills by the windows out as well because it’s easier to refit them into the air conduits when you reassemble them)
Remove the two speakers and the little plate in the centre of the windscreen which will reveal the three bolts that hold the top of the facia. These are difficult to reach but if you have a screwdriver set with a 6mm Allen fitting, then it’s easier than trying to use a bloody big Allen key.
Loosen them off but don’t take them out yet.
If they are too tight to move, then turn a large Allen key around, hold the short length in a set of mole grips and use the long part to undo them. Be careful not the damage the windscreen!!!!!!!
Reach underneath the passenger foot well and take off the two plugs that are fitted to the blower motor.
Inside the glove compartment and you will see a large and a small hatch. Remove the small hatch and you will see a large bolt head (½ inch socket) this is the same as the one on the drivers side.
Underneath the facia there are 4 bolts which have to be removed using a 6mm Allen key.
If you look underneath the steering column you will see that it is held in place by a plate with 4 bolts passing through it. Take off the nuts and the column will lower, but hold onto it because there are 7 block connectors that now have to be removed. Either photograph them or mark them. The small one underneath is easy enough to remember, but it’s devil to find where it goes when you reassemble, so mark it somehow. There is a fixture that disables the ignition on the barrel that needs to be taken off, and I found that it was easier to do this once the column was lowered a little. It just popped off on mine but I don’t know if this is a feature on all Puntos.
Lower the column and rest it on the floor out of the way.
Now remove those 3 bolts up by the windscreen and you should have removed 9 large fixing bolts.
The moment of truth. Jiggle the facia around and it should all start to move away from the dash, but check to see that nothing is hanging up. (be careful if you have an alarm fitted as the wires may be tucked up somewhere)
If you can get away without taking all the block connectors out, so much the better.
Looking at the bulkhead you will see 2 nuts holding the top of the heater unit and another one holding the top of the blower unit. Undo these and you will now have freed up the whole unit.
At first you may find that nothing moves and it seems like it is still being held in place, but as long as you have unbolted everything, then it is only the pressure holding it all. You may need to use a little bit of force, but don’t go at it like a bull at a gate because if it really doesn’t want to move then something is holding it, but you will need to give it a bit of pushing and pulling to move it.
Once you have freed it all up you can turn the unit on its back where you will see 2 self tappers holding the matrix in place. Unscrew these and the matrix will just slide out.
When ordering the new unit, take the old one with you because there are 2 or 3 different ones for the same model and you will need to get them to look up the right one. (didn’t make any difference for me because they still ordered the wrong one)
Reassembly is just a reversal of the disassembly, but it helps if someone can guide the pipes etc through the bulkhead and put the nuts on the bolts for you. You will have to jiggle the heater about the get it onto the bolts, but be careful that you don’t damage the pipes etc, although it is pretty straight forward if you just take your time and don’t lose concentration (don’t force anything).
When the whole facia is off and lying there, it seems like a nightmare scenario, but it will go back together again, just make sure you have taken notes and photographs.

I found that the replacement matrix’s seem to be made ass about face (perhaps for left-hand drives) and in order to get the pipes to fit through the bulkhead the matrix had to be turned upside down. This in turn led to the self tappers not lining up with the lugs on the matrix and you may need to improvise with a couple of large plastic washers or something similar, but as long as nothing is being forced it will be OK.
I also found that the matrix also came with a piece of sponge wrapped around it. Don’t know if this was supposed to be taken off but I took it off because it stopped the matrix sitting all the way home and put unnecessary pressure on the unit if left in place.

Once the pipes are reconnected, you must make sure that you top up the coolant and bleed any air out of the system. I did this a couple of times and then ran the car around the block to force the coolant through the heater. I then bled it again.
Check the coolant level again the next day when everything is cold and if necessary top up.
The job is an awful one to do but will save you an awful lot of cash.(y)


G.M.
 
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