I have owned a 1990 230TE UK spec for two years. In the past two weeks it has started to loose water, about 1litre a day. I could not find any hose leaks but lifted the carpets to find the footwells front and rear and both sides filled with water.
Has the heater matrix gone? Anyone had similar problems? I assume if the matrix is leaking this is a dashboard out repair.
Any help would be appreciated as I do about 1000miles a month and dont want to risk blowing the engine.
First thing, are you certain that the water inside the car wasn't there before the engine started loosing water?
If the water in the car is from the engine, then it does sound like the heater matirx and although I have never replaced one, I am fairly certain you will need to remove the dash.
__________________
Work is the curse of the drinking class!
Spanners, I put some Bars Leaks in to see would it improve the situation. This turns the water milky and this is now in the footwells[:(]I suppose I am going to have to bite the bullet on this one and set aside a weekend of scraped knuckles and broken body trim clips or as a friend once did, cut a hole through the bulkhead[:0]
Removing the dash is not as bad as it looks if it doesn't have a passenger air bag (3 hours approx).
One thing to be careful of is the centre air vent. Aswell as the philips screw in the side, look through the vent itself, there is a 5mm alen key screw to undo (otherwise you will break it trying to force it).
There maybe other little tips, but my memroy is not that good.
Cheers for that! Maybe I'll give painting the spare room a miss this weekend and get some heat back in the car before fungus starts growing everywhere.
Before tearing the dash apart check the connection of the hoses to the heater core. One could become lose and blow-by the core to the footwells. A pressur check might not show this problem untill the engine heats up. If the heater core is bad you should be noticing "steamy windows".