Smelly Water in Footwell!!

[Master_of_none]

Hi everyone, i hope someone can help me with this as i am a little concerned...

I have had my Bongo for about 5months now and it is used constantly (it is now the only car my girlfriend and i own). A few days ago we started getting a smell in the cabin that was similar to the inside of a wheelie bin. a bit like gone off veg. We assumed this was due to something in the back of the van or an ageing bone the dog had managed to sneak in. We investigated but found nothing.

Yesterday I noticed that the carpet in the drivers footwell was soaked and foamed slightly when i rubbed my foot over it, the passenger footwell was also a bit damp.

Today i took up the carpet to try and find the source of the leak but could not see anything obvious, the water appears to have come down the back of the rubberised covering of the bulkhead behind the dash emanating from somewhere in the middle of the van above the central hump.

I checked my coolant level which appeared to be low, so have topped this up. but all other fluids (brake, power steering, Washer bottle) are fine. The liquid smells similar to the coolant which makes me worry, but i can't see any obvious leaks or how this would get into the footwells as none of the coolant pipes appear to go near this area of the cabin.

Any one got any ideas??

[sparkymik]

Front heater matrix leaking best guess

Sparky

[missfixit70]

Sounds like if may well be the heater matrix which is inside the cab, the hoses come through the bulkhead on the passy side up under the dash, if you take out the glove box, you should be able to see the casing, not had to get into it, there was a post a while back from someone that replaced theirs.
Found it - http://www.igmaynard.co.uk/bongo/forum/ ... ont+matrix

[Master_of_none]

Apologies if this is a stupid question, but i'm not particularly mechanically minded, is the heater matrix a critical component to the driving of the car? i.e. can i still drive the thing or will it all go horribly wrong?

I'm supposed to be driving to Ross-on-wye tomorrow (50ish miles) and could do with knowing if i need to arrange alternative transport....

[missfixit70]

It is part of the engine cooling sytem, if it goes pop, you'll lose all your coolant & overheat which could result in a new head etc £1500 repair bill it can be bypassed by connecting the inlet & outlet pipes together, but will then need bleeding properly due to the complexity of the bongo cooling system. the details of the bleeding procedure are in the members area factsheets.

[Richard D]

Also if it goes pop after being in use for a while there will be boiling coolant spraying down to both footwells.