Hi Ken
Dealer did indeed say recall deadline has passed, but gave me phone number of VW services who I will try now. Apparently the dealine was last year, and I didn't receive anything to say I needed to take it in to VW.
I'm not very impressed by the reason that they gave, that my car is now old and hence not worth repairing. It's a safety recall, and hence the age of the car should be irrelevant. If it was a cosmetic or ride quality issue, I'd agree with them, but having the possibility of hot coolant being sprayed into the cabin certainly needs to be addressed.
Matt
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Just rang customer care, who said VW will not be carrying out any modifications to my car. Two things cropped up:
1 - The car was suggested to be too old, which I mentioned previously concerned me as this is a safety issue, not a resale issue, and hence the age or value of the car is not important.
2 - They suggested that the matrix on my car was a later version that did not need modifying.
Does anyone know if this is worth following up? I'm smelling a fob-off, but there is of course the chance that the matrix failure was genuinely 'one of those things', and that the matrix was an updated one which didn't require modification. However, a great number of people have said the modification needed doing and this is the first I've heard about upgraded matrices which didn't require recall. Even the VW dealer didn't mention anything about upgraded matrices, further arousing suspicion.
If anyone has any further knowledge about this, I'd be grateful to hear from them.
Matt
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Mattieboy,
i dont like your chances of getting a garage to fix the matrix, but i can tell you how to tell if yours has the mod and also give you good advice on changing the matrix as i have just put my car back together after changing mine. Mine is also a MK2 on a G plate and so the chances are that they will have more or less the same problems when trying to do it.
firstly to check if you have the mod, i will write more later as i have to shoot off.. it will be later on today..
JH
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JH
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Hi JH
Cheers for offer of comments, any you have would be appreciated.
The mod hasn't been done, but the VW mechanic I spoke to suggested that they're not really needed and were just put there to ensure VW covered themselves.
Pretty much given up the idea of getting VW to do it, am still displeased as they made no effort to contact me or my brother to have the recall done, and now the recall has expired. still, in all honesty I think the matrix might even be the original one, so I can't complain when it fails - I've just had a heap of things go at once, henc etried to shift some cost onto VW! I've got a replacement matrix from GSF, went for the higher quality valeo one as I didn't want to spend ages fitting the cheaper one only for it to fail again. I'm taking a day off work to do it, hoping that will be enough. I've also got to fit a heater blower fan as mine sounds like a trumpet or an elephant, it's been like it for a while and I thought I'd do the whole job whilst I have the ddash off. £20 from a breakers doesn't seem too bad.
Cheers
Matt
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Sorry if this information is too late. Radweld cured both of my Golf mk2 heaters and I didn't bother to fit the extra hose valves afterwards. Heater motor can be fitted at anytime being situated above the front passenger feet.
Best of luck if you do need to change the matrix, it looks hard to do!
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Hi
Cheers for comments. I've had a bit of bad luck with radweld before, where it caused a few problems in other parts of the cooling system - this was on a battered old Nova, which was on its last legs anyway, so I wasn't too gutted! I'd rather just replace the matrix for peace of mind, although it does look a horrible job.
Cheers
Matt
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ive just spent an hour and a half writing how to change the matrix and when i came to send it, it asked me to log in again, which i did and it deleted all of what i wrote...
i am not happy
gonna message the administrators
i dont think that i can physically do it all again
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JH
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Hi
Thanks for efforts, I've not had it with this forum but I've lost messages on others, infuriating isn't a strong enough word!
I've changed the matrix, what a foul job that was. The clubgti forum has a pretty useful breakdown of how to do it (see www.clubgti.com/forum and look under engine FAQs) and it's worth taking on boeard some of their advice - I can't fit the driver's side control cable, it would be well worth refitting that before relocating the airbox, but other than that all seems OK. In the rush to get it done in daylight I forgot to fix the foam gasket, it doesn't look too serious but annoying given all the effort I'd put in. If it proves to be a problem I might put a little sealant around the edges, I'm certainly not taking the airbox off again!
I also did a little bit of damage to the airbox when getting it out, it's a horribly tight fit, not helped by the control box for my alarm being fitted right in front of it! Perfectly logical place, but a right royal pain.
Thanks once again for your efforts,
Matt
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I will check that website out, thanks
I had a similar problem with the driver side cable. I realised straight away that it was gonna be a bitch, so i changed the matrix in the car, but pulled it away enough to see properly.
I actually put elec tape down each side of the matrix itself to help protect it from the plastic clips at the top of the air box itself. Prob is i think that the tape is slowly melting due to the heat.. the car stinks of plastic when i have the heater on!! Bit of a downer, but im sure you'll agree, better than no heater when it freezes up!
Nasty job, well done for managing it..
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JH
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By the way mattieboy, how much did you pay fro your matrix, if you dont mind me asking?
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JH
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£33 plus VAT from GSF. That's for a valeo one, there was a cheaper one at £25 but I didn't want to risk it due to the nature of the job - I had a look at the cheaper one, it looked fine but I would suggest the quality of material and internals is quite important, which I couldn't judge by eye. The valeo one is identical to the one stocked by VW, who sell it for around £95 - when my old one came out it was identical. I bought two bottles of G12 plus for about £3.90 for 1 and 1/2 litres as well, so all up it was not far off £50 for everything. I also got a new blower fan whilst I was at it, £20 from a breakers yard.
Matt
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ive just spent an hour and a half writing how to change the matrix and when i came to send it, it asked me to log in again, which i did and it deleted all of what i wrote... i am not happy gonna message the administrators i dont think that i can physically do it all again --------------------------------------------- JH
Hi
Another time you spend a long time writing a post, it is best to copy it to your clip board. Just right click the on the text and then select 'select all', then right click again and select 'copy'.
That way if you do get timed out on the account you can bring the form up and paste it in.
Alternitively, write your reply in Word or similar then copy it across.
HTH
Hugo - BR Moderator
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Hugo,
Thanks for the advice, but I emailed DD on the day it happened and he told me the same as you did.
It was harsh at the time coz i spent so long writing it to try and help save Mattieboy time and the page just went blank..
O well, i know now!!
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JH
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So we can therefore deduce that Mattie has nice warm toes now,and a lack of condensation?
Ken.
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Hi Ken
Too warm toes, in fact - I couldn't reconnect one of the cables that shuts off the feet-level vents, I'll try again when the scars from my last efforts have healed!
Other than that, and a slight smell of hot pipes (which I put down to new fittings) all is fine.
Matt
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mattie,
the cuts i sustained to my fingers trying to unclip the bottom cables have still not healed.. which is nice!
I'm now not getting uniform blowing on the windscreen, the driver end isnt getting as much air as the rest and i now have an annoying rattle from within the dash...
All in all, if i have probs with the matrix on any future car, fund allowing, i would strongly consider giving it to a garage!
JH
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