406oc.co.uk

There was an accident this morning so I got cuaght in v.slow moving traffic for about an hour. Then I could smell something odd, I checked the temp gauge & it was sitting at 90, as it had been for about 30mins. Then, steam started belowing through the air vents into the cabin, & before I knew it the temp guage was rising. By the time I got onto the hard shoulder there was water pi$$ing into the passenger footwell, plus a little into my footwell.

I manged to nurse the car another 60 miles but kept on having to pull over every 10 mins to top up the coolant & drive with the windows down.

My guess is heater matrix is cooked. Right?

Is it an expensive job to sort it out, & if so whats the best way to go about it?

Thanks very much.

Car details:

1998 406 TD Intercooler [AC]

Sounds like your heater matrix might have detached itself somehow. Definitely repairable. Cheapest option is to grab a replacement from a breakers yard

I've heard they are buggers to fit, a lot of the dash needs to come out?

Also, just spoke to the previous owner (a mate) & it did it when he bought it, about a year ago. Apparently it's suspected to be a seal on the matrix, so he bunged in some Radweld & it was fine.... up till now. I'm happy to do this again if it will last a few months at least.

Well you've got nothing to lose chucking some more radweld in. You could alternatively try some K-Seal

I left the car over the weekend to give myself a cooling off period

This morning I went to the local garage who only had BARRS Leak fixer, so I bought a tin of that. There was no coolant in the car so I put it in as recomended, added 1ltr of green anti-freeze with about 4ltrs of water. Took for a short drive butshortly more steam through dash + green antifreeze in footwell..... that'll be the stuff I just put in then. Anyway just kept toping it up with water & after about 10 miles the steam stopped pretty much.

Now I've done about 20 miles & it's 99% stopped. I've hovered out all the coolant from the footwells & no more has appeared. Plus, I've just stuck another tin of BARRS leak fix through the system to be on the safe side.

My only issue now, is the coolant level light keeps coming on & going off intermitantly... not quite sure how much I've put in or has leaked out??? I've added about another litre of anti-freeze & in total since this morning about 6 litres of water!