water leak on passenger side

[aceifty]

while driving my car started pissing a lot of water from the passenger side luckily it happened outside my drive.

could it just be the pipe that connects to the matrix

[e30-EVN]

footwell???

if so then yes, either a matrix pipe has let go or the heater valve. do not drive the car until fixed

[suedenim]

I've had the same issue myself, turned out to be the heater valve. If it is coolant on the floor it probably is.

Having got as far as removing the valve I took the matrix out to asses it's condition at the same time, even had it pressure tested (purely subjective mind).

There are a coule of screws that are facing the bulkhead that are a PITA to get to, read different ways of getting to them, but I pulled the grommet on the bulkhead out and used a suitable extension to access it. If you do take out the matrix there is a srew at the bottom of its housing, really inaccesible, can't remeber how I got it out, but it's worth replacing it with a hex-head self tapper on refitting.

Once you've refitted the valve, bleed the system and check is all working before refitting all of the interior trim.

As it's summer and if it's your daily and you need to use it, you can bypass the heater by joining the inlet and outlet pipes together with a piece of U shaped tubing.

[e30-EVN]

As it's summer and if it's your daily and you need to use it, you can bypass the heater by joining the inlet and outlet pipes together with a piece of U shaped tubing

and if the car decides to run hot and the viscous decides it doesnt wanna play ball you will have no heaters to turn on as a back up plan.!!!
above post has good advise but the last bit is NOT a very good idea imo

[suedenim]

As it's summer and if it's your daily and you need to use it, you can bypass the heater by joining the inlet and outlet pipes together with a piece of U shaped tubing

and if the car decides to run hot and the viscous decides it doesnt wanna play ball you will have no heaters to turn on as a back up plan.!!!
above post has good advise but the last bit is NOT a very good idea imo

It wasn't really inteded as drive it like that until winter, but until you have the soonest time to get around to it should it be your daily. Got me out of trouble in the past, and given me a set of wheels to source the new matrix.

[aceifty]

Ive lOcated the leak to the matrix pipes, any ideas on how to remove them?!

[aceifty]

is it a easy job to do?

[suedenim]

It's fiddly but not really rocket surgery. Are you positive it's only coming from the joints in the pipe and not just being sprayed from elsewhere and dripping down from there, have you run it up to temp to find the leak? The heater valve actually forms one of the pipes from the matrix to the engine bay.

I would remove the glove box and centre console just to give proper access, then run the engine up to temp with the heater turned to hot, wipe everything dry and with a torch check where the leak is. Keep an eye on the engine temp!

If it's just a join in the pipes it may just be that the O ring has perished, it's advisable you change them as a matter of course when undoing the pipes anyway.
As a minimum I would take both pipes off and replace all four O rings. I ordered mine from BMW as they ones that came off were conical shaped, the ones that arrived were just standard O rings, I would just go to a decent plumbers merchant in the future

The pipes are joined with hex head bolts (M4-6 can't remember), two are facing you from the footwell and two are facing the engine.

Put some plastic sheeting in the footwell to catch any spills and have a container ready (ice cream tub etc).

From under the bonnet, undo the unions with the inlet and outlet pipes noting which is which.

Pull the grommet from the bulkhead away and use an extension on your socket to reach the two bolts. The other pipe will have the bolts facing you. remove the screw holding the heater valve to the matrix and all should be free now. Make sure the surfaces are clean before fitting the new O rings, reassemble with threadlock on the bolts and bleed the cooling system.

[Brianmoooore]

Put some plastic sheeting in the footwell to catch any spills and have a container ready (ice cream tub etc).

When you have disconnected both hoses under the bonnet to the stub pipes, connect a hose to the LOWER stub and run some clean water through.
Any spillage that subsequently occurs when you are working in the footwell will then be clean water, rather than coolant mix which never dries and stains your carpet.

[aceifty]

iv removed the heater valve as the pipe was broken. (my Leak) hopefully it should be back on the road within two days (that's if I get the part on time)

[Brianmoooore]

Check that the coolant bottle pressure cap has been replaced under the safety recall.

[aceifty]

Check that the coolant bottle pressure cap has been replaced under the safety recall.

what cap should it have, as the one iv got has a yellow bottom with 140 on it. and on my other cab the bottom of the cap is black.

[Brianmoooore]

Yellow base is definitely a replacement one. One with the black base may or may not be.
All the replacement caps I've been given have had a yellow base, but it has been claimed by others on here that the caps they've been given have had black bases.

[aceifty]

can i still get replacement one