Xantia leak

Hi, I have a 1.8 xantia P reg with aircon.

I think the matrix is leaking, we get drips on the passenger carpet right up at the top under the dash.

I've been thinking it was leaking for a while, when I used the fan in the summer I used to get a "sweet" smell like antifreeze. Until a month or two ago I had a rubber mat in the footwell. Because the windows were getting badly steamed up in the recent cold weather I pulled up the mat looking for damp and the carpet was soaked. Either water came in during the last floods or it was the matrix leak.

Is there any point putting some radweld/leak fix in the system, will this do any good? I know fixing it is a big dash out job which I'm not interested in doing, I'm just looking for a quick fix which will reduce the leak even if it doesnt fix it completely.

Also, is the temp control electronic? When it is on hot or cold it is fine, but anywhere in between there seems to be a big lag in getting hotter/cooler air from the vents. It sounds like something is moving independent of the slider on the dash. After a while the tone/soound of the air coming out of the vents seems to change like it has opened a vent/mixer in the dash to change the air temp.

The blower control packed up a while ago, I have simply put a switch straight to the fan motor, I only have off / full on but it is better than nothing.

One other thing, when I switch on the ignition, (dash lights on but engine not started), I seem to be able to hear a small fan running in / behind the dash, it is'nt the radiator fan and it isnt the blower, so what is it?

On the whole I like the car a lot, its been very reliable, I've had it over two years and I'm afraid I have'nt done a thing to it, apart from change the oil, filter and air filter when I got it, I'd like to get another xantia, but if this matrix leak is a common problem maybe I'll get something else instead!

Very common on the Xantia, it's a BIG job to replace, autodata quotes some stupid amount of time to do it. To build the Xantia, basically what they did was suspend the heater matrix from a rope and assemble the car around it...

Mine was/is leaking, I stuck some Radweld in and ran it for a few days, it seemed to get a little better but not much, I then replaced the coolant and stuck some "Barrs Stopleaks" in, this stuff was much better (or the mixture of both products works best ! ) and the smell has almost gone from my car.

I must point out that mine wasn't bad enough to be flooding the car, just to make the car damp and smelly.

During Summer I'll be replacing the matrix, and while the dash is out I need to replace loads of dash bulbs...