Berlingo Forum

Hello to all

Way back in September The wonderful workhorse developed a water leak but not from anywhere obvious. It was eventually tracked by the garage to be a hole in the heater matrix. We saw the damaged part. The garage were not excited about doing the job as access to the heater matrix take a long time.

Part replaced and all went well for 6 weeks when the part failed. The garage had used an after-market part and replaced it with a different make of after-market part. At Christmas this part also failed. The car is about to have a genuine Citroen part fitted hopefully this week.

My question is why would the parts be failing? The garage is an MOT centre with a good reputation in the area.

I wonder if the antifreeze could be unsuitable in some way? I don't think that the engine has ever been flushed out and the car is 12 years old. However in that time the car has always been serviced and maintained following the car service book that came with the car. The water in the radiator when the first matrix failed looked dirty brown and scummy.

I wondered about antifreeze after trying to buy some and finding the variety available now makes it quite difficult to choose. A mechanic in another garage said that the antifreeze needed to be all one type as antifreeze types do not mix and may react with each other.

I have never before needed to top up the radiator but whether a garage at some time has added a different antifreeze from the blue one it started with I just do not know.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

(15-01-2013, 10:59 PM)carmarthentown Wrote: [ -> ]Hello to all

Way back in September The wonderful workhorse developed a water leak but not from anywhere obvious. It was eventually tracked by the garage to be a hole in the heater matrix. We saw the damaged part. The garage were not excited about doing the job as access to the heater matrix take a long time.

Part replaced and all went well for 6 weeks when the part failed. The garage had used an after-market part and replaced it with a different make of after-market part. At Christmas this part also failed. The car is about to have a genuine Citroen part fitted hopefully this week.

My question is why would the parts be failing? The garage is an MOT centre with a good reputation in the area.

I wonder if the antifreeze could be unsuitable in some way? I don't think that the engine has ever been flushed out and the car is 12 years old. However in that time the car has always been serviced and maintained following the car service book that came with the car. The water in the radiator when the first matrix failed looked dirty brown and scummy.

I wondered about antifreeze after trying to buy some and finding the variety available now makes it quite difficult to choose. A mechanic in another garage said that the antifreeze needed to be all one type as antifreeze types do not mix and may react with each other.

I have never before needed to top up the radiator but whether a garage at some time has added a different antifreeze from the blue one it started with I just do not know.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

In what way are these failing?
Are they slightly the wrong shape and being stressed by tightening or, as you suggest, being fitted by an unwilling conscript...
If they were obtained from the same source is it a duff batch?
Antifreeze would generally be universal these days so I personally wouldnt have thought that would be an issue

evdama Wrote:In what way are these failing?
Are they slightly the wrong shape and being stressed by tightening or, as you suggest, being fitted by an unwilling conscript...
If they were obtained from the same source is it a duff batch?
Antifreeze would generally be universal these days so I personally wouldnt have thought that would be an issue

Antifreezes are not all certified compatible; there is ongoing debate about the results of mixing them as most reports of "horrific" outcomes of sludging, precipitates, polymerisation etc involve unquantified aspects such as water hardness, other sytem additives (known and unknown) and agenda of the poster! If the type of coolant is unknown, considering (my) above comments, it is probably good practice to flush with a chemical agent, then clean water, then fill with a quantity of the desired agent. I've never mixed coolant types, but happily mixed brands and the coolant galleries of my engines are like new.

Valeo issued a TSB some years ago where they refused to warrant a matrix fitted unless it was done by a garage who demonstrably added Forté stop leak at the same time... I also see a lot of matrix leaks from distorted flange couplings on the PSA matrices as opposed to failure of the coolant passages, crimped edges or header tanks themselves. Basically, poor design of the attaching elements and fix points.

Anyway - it's 32°C outside - why worry about a heater? :p

Hi,
I use OATs organic antifreeze in our 1.4 2002. Try and get an OEM matrix from another source to the main dealer. We do this a lot with Landrover parts at a fraction of the cost to the main "stealer" prices for the same part.
Griff