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well today finally removed the heater unit from under the dash...no wonder it does not work....rusted to hell and back, and all the old foam has collapsed/disintegrated so is knackered. A while ago I bought a new matrix from RIMMER Brothers, but of course now I find it is for the later Metre/Rover 100 and does not fit.

So, decided to visit my favourite car builders emporium - www.cbsonline.co.uk - and have bought one of their small re-circulating heater units (aka fug stirrer), but will continue to use the original engine bay fresh air intake and fan unit to a couple of vents on the dashboard !!

Got some manufacturing to do to make this work...photos to follow as work progresses !

Dave

Problems with the heater are the reason I got 1 of the heated front screens in the group buy. I just have 1 of CBS small electric heaters under the dash for keeping the cabin warm on the rare occasion it's needed

Finally got round to a trial fitting of the CBS heater unit today...see picture attached.

I am building a new front panel for fresh air and instruments as this heater is just a fug stirrer and will not get a fresh air input.

I am hoping to get this all installed this weekend...so more photos to follow.... !!

This is the dash board that replaces the old Metro heater unit:

As you can see there are two fresh air vents plus switches for: heater, fresh air, extractor fans and engine fan override, in addition to the new gauges.
The amount of wiring that has built up surprised me when it was done !!

Looks tidy but not much color coding going on.

Hans Efde wrote:Looks tidy but not much color coding going on.

no, but all labelled !!

Latest photos of new heater plumbed in.

I had intended to make the Z bend connections in copper with soldered joints, but the pipes coming out of the heater were an odd size, so I made it all up in rubber and plastic !!

Now I need to add a bleed valve to the top hose and get rid of the airlock !!

Dave

That's a good routing. My hoses are sitting slightly too high in the engine bay and indeed the upper hose will trap all air and the heater stops working.

I was told about a great mechanics trick today for filling the heater with water.
Take a 2 litre plastic coke bottle, cut off the base, increase the size of the screw top neck to tightly fit expansion tank hole. Run engine up to temperature and top up the coke bottle with antifreeze solution.
The aim is to get the level of water in the coke bottle above the hose with the airlock - which, of course, is why there is an airlock in the first place with the hose being the highest part of the system.

Going to try that today to see if it works (as well as fitting the bleed valve) !!

D

The bleed valve works fine, I have it as well. When all is cold I open it. Since it is on the highest position all air is accumulated. I push the hose down and the water pushes the air out. Cap screwed on again and air is gone. This works for a few trips, but to cure the problem I need to find out how much my expansion bottle can be raised. I installed it conservatively, so probably I can install it 2 or 3cm before hitting the bonnet. Hopefully that then will be the highest point in the system.