The problem appears to have been fixed with the use of Kalimex K-Seal £15.00 delivered to the door This has sorted the leak and is a lot less than the matrix £300 ++ for unit Plus a day to fit it. Spoke to Hyundai main dealer mechanic who has done three and it is a full dash removal plus drop the steering column.

this stuff does not block cooling ways on radiators like some RADWELD sealers. Google Kalimex for full details

Ran AC system with COMMA cleaning bomb in car footwell to clean up system. would reccommend to any one with similar problem to follow trhis route

gid


The car has just been serviced. No problem with the pollen filter. my mechanic says smell is antifreeze. The screen actually gets damp with the blower on and the moisture on the screen tastes of antifreeze. He thinks problem is tiny pinhole leak on heater matrix that is sending tiny quantities of coolant into air stream.

Any experience of this?? or does any one know best deal on a heater matrix, or how easy it is to get the old one out from within the dash!!!!!


Gidboy

This post has been edited by GidBoy: Nov 20 2009, 07:15 PM

Hmmm... I would take your mechanic's statement with a pinch of salt.

First of all, the heater core inside the dash is AFTER the pollen filter. In fact, the order of items in the air conditioning system, as going from the blower fan are:

fan--- pollen filter--- ac evaporator (cooling core)---flow distrubution assembly (which inside has the heater core)--- air ducts ---- outside vents on dash.

That means that if there is a leak in the heater core, this leak will not get to the pollen filter. Instead, it will drip inside the air distribution assembly and will eventually drip to the vehicles carpet, onto either side (driver or passenger) near the center cosole towards the firewall.

If there is really a leak, you can touch with your fingers inside the lower vents (heating) and try if there is something wet there. If there is, this "wetness" should be greenish in color (antifreeze) or whatever color your antifreeze is.

Most of the time, funny odors coming from the ac system are due to contaminants impregnated inside the vents, pollen filter and such. I know cleaning those vents and ducts can be pretty difficult since it means taking appart most of the dashboard.

Most airborn "odor" molecules behave the same way. For example, cigarrette some is very common to impregnate the air duct walls inside. This happens due to condensation on the duct walls when the ac is blowing with cool air.

Robert B.

I think your mechanic is right. From what you described, seems like the heater has pin hole leaks. As the fan blows air into the
ducts, this mist will be carried over along the air stream as evident with the moisture on your screen and the taste of antifreeze.

when i bought mine it smelt a bit of anti-freeze when engine warm when i checked the water level in the top-up bottle it was 2 inch's over when cold so i emptyed some out and the smell went it's worth a check hope this helps Andy

Ventilation Smell in mt Terracan

The terracan vent problem has now been fixed. The heater matrix had to be replaced £341.00 from Hyundai as no one appears to make them after market. THe whole dash has to come out and also the AC charge has to be dropped to allow the unit to come out. The water pipe connection where it enters the header of the matrix had a tiny leak once pressure was appplied to the unit.

The heater control box assembly had a good quantity of coolant lying in it so it does not always appear in the foot well. This all had to be mopped up to get rid of the smell. Job now fixed and car slowly loosing the lingering antifreeze smell.

The header tank level in the engine bay was only dropping very slowly as the leak was so small. The coolant sealer did not work for long so if you do get this problem you have to replace the matrix

GidBoy