To start with all was well, and I was loving being a Scooby owner, but I'm now utterly p1zzed off with it. A couple of days after I got the car, I was driving through North Shields, when all of a sudden, after I switched the heaters on, my windscreen filled up with steam, and I had to pull over as I couldn't see. At first I was told (by a mate of my Dad's who works for a Scooby dealer as a mechanic), that it may be the Aircon filling up with water because of a blocked drain. Then, a couple of days ago, I traveled to Holy Island. Just before the causeway, The same thing happened except this time more steam was visible. I switched the heaters off and then left the car i the carpark etcetcetc.... On returning home, I checked the remnants of water (which had gathered in a puddle in the passenger footwell) and found it to be full of Antifreeze! Argh, blown heater matrix. Anyway, I stripped out the dash, got a matrix and replaced it, the ran the car and reassembled it. Last night after driving for about 15 minutes, the car started to overheat, so I stopped in a Bus stop beside Morrisons in Tynemouth, rang my Dad and his mate, and had to limp the car home, stopping every 5 minutes to cool it, so that I could get rid of a suspected air lock. The lock seems to hagve gone, and the car runs okay, or has done on the short run I have just been on. But, the heaters are still blowing cold. Also, about an hour ago, I had a look at the fuses, and a 20amp was blown. I replaced it, and switched the ignition on and suddenly there ws a loud clicking from somewhere near the airbox, and the radiator fans started switching on and off every 20 seconds or so. This has now stopped, but the fans don't switch on at all (even when I put the aircon switch on). Also, when I reconnected the wiring, there are 2 small plugs under the steering column, one is a bright green one in a T shape, the other a small black with only one wire on each side. I don't remember if these were connected, but when I connect the black one, the CHECK ENGINE light flashes, and the green one dosn't seem to affect anything at the moment. Can anyone help me PLEASE????

 

I've been reading your threads and feel for ya mate. The matrix is a bitch to have break on you.

Dont give up on the scoob yet.

This was my mates Starlet Gt turbo trying to replace his.

 

Cheers mate, but Im running short on cash and patience now............. to Subarus for today!

 

CALM DOWN.

The connectors should be disconnected. they are for fault finding purposes. One of them is responsible for your solenoids clicking, the other is responsible for the CEL light. You use these for diagnostics only.

If your heater is blowing cold - i'm afraid you still have air in there. The system needs filling up very carefuly from the header tank, with lots of squeezing of hoses to get the air out.

 

But if there is still air in the system, surely if both heater matrix pipes are HOT, then the hot water is passing through the matrix??

 

You did not say they were hot in your original post.

Matters not, you can still have an airlock in the matrix/radiator/wherever and water flow through beneath the airlock.

Heater not blowing hot is almost always an airlock or low water level.

 

Sorry P1mark, my mistake. Im posting in a couple of different forums and keep forgetting what Ive written. So basically, there can still be enough water flowing to make the outlet on the matrix hot, but the part the fan is blowing through is probably full of air, have I got this right?

 

Yep.

 

have been trying for a while to clear airlock. Took the car for a spin, and it seems to be cooling ok, just that the fans arent kicking in very often, and dont run when I put the aircon switch on????? Also, still cannot seem to get heaters to blow hot, although they seem to be slightly warmer than before, unless this is just because im freezing my t1ts off working outside, anyone any ideas?

 

You will not neccesarily get rid of an airlock by driving around.

Trust me, they can be a bitch. Do the job properly instead of hoping. Drain the coolant, refil slowly from the header tank stopping every now and again to give the hoses a good squeeze (in particular the bottom rad hose).

It will take you maybe 10-15 mins.

When done leave the header tank cap off, fire it up for a minute or two and top up. Leave the heater on full blast and blowing hot.

Put the cap back on, leave it ticking over for 10 mins or so with the odd throttle blip until it is fully warmed up. In fact leave it till the fan kicks in to check it's working.

Let it cool down for an hour, final hose squeeze, then top header tank up again. then fill the overflow tank to the correct level. The air con fan has nothing to do with this problem by the way, check your fuses again.

 

All sorted now, cheers everyone for help. However, my power steering feels really heavy now too I think Ive bought a sh1tta! I was told at Motor World (yes, I know, but it was Sunday and there was a choice of them, or Halfrauds) thatDextron 2 fluid should be okay, as the fluid was low. So, I filled it up, but it hasnt made any difference! I also have a slight knock on hard turns Anyone any clue as to what it could be?? My head REALLY IS BATTERED NOW!

 

ttt

 

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