Matrix Heater

My Peugeot K reg. 205 has a leak and the car is overheating. I've been told
that it looks like Is.'s the Matrix leaking? Can someone please tell me, is
this the nightmare job it's supposed to be? I was also told that the entire
dashboard has to be removed, is this true? I can buy the Matrix for £31.50
+ VAT but what should I expect to pay to get the job done? Thanks for any
advise given.

 

Piece of cake on a 205. In a less than graceful way I did mine in about 30
mins (including re-bleeding coolant system), replacing it with a second hand
one I nabbed from a 309 I also had at the time.

It's located at the back the centre console, and is removed from the drivers
side. Theoretically you need to take the trim off (well you did on my
Dturbo, might be different on none sporty models without the full centre
console), but i just bent it back, which just gave enough room to get the
heater matrix out.

If you took it to a garage I guess you'd be looking at an hours labour, so
£40ish quid for fitting.

 

Thanks for the advice Carl, but when I told a mechanic what you said he told
me that all the dashboard has to be dismantled to get to the Matrix and to
do the job could take 2-4 hours? Is this just another rip-off?

 

Well I can tell you with absolute certainty that mine took under an hour,
including removing the matrix from the 309 and re bleeding the 205, but as I
said I didnt completely remove all the necessary trim, just bent it out of
the way. If you did it properly I cant see it adding that much time though.

I know 405s can be a pain as I can vaguely remember helping change one quite
a few years ago when I was a wee lad and it took ages.

Perhaps it'll be worth getting a second opinion?

 

I agree with Carl. On the 205 and 309 it can be done in situ and
should tkae about an hour.

 

Thanks for the advice Nigel. I don't think it's the nightmare job I thought
it would be, but how do I convince a garage to take the same view as Carl
and yourself ? That I'm afraid will be a No-No, in
Rip-off-the-Motorist-Britain

 

If you cant just go somewhere else