Hi,
I've got a 1995 xantia TD and recently noticed that when turning the heater on a brief puff of what looks like smoke comes through the vent under the windscreen. It has a burnt sweet smell and takes ages to demist. Do you have any idea what's going on and whether it will cost an arm an a leg to fix?
Cheers
Mike
Hmmm - is this "puff" particularly noticable on colder mornings?
Is the "sweet" smell a bit "antifreezey"?
CAS
sorry i'm hungry......
I second what CAS said. It could well be a slight leak in the heater circuit. On my old XM the drain from the aircon was blocked and if I used AC on a cold day to demist the windows, the next time I started the car I'd get a cloud (well an invisible cloud) of warm moist air in through the demister vents, which needed the AC to remove it ......etc. I think my Xantia may be starting to get a similar problem but getting to the drain might necessitate removing the wiper arms (but I am not sure) to remove the grill over the air intake.
I would suspect the heater core itself (obviously investigate first) because the constuction of them is absolutely dire.
As many have pointed out in the past, if it is the heater core, sell the car on the next available warm day. Replacing the heater core on a Xant is about a 14 hour job involving complete dashboard removal and worse!
CAS
CAS ( snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying :
Agreed. Heater matrix. It's not smoke, it's steam, and the sweet smell is antifreeze.
Agreed. It's a *bastard* of a job.
I'm so glad it's not my problem, though I reckon SWMBOs 106 has a blocked matrix so that's my next task on a sunny day.
SWMBOs ??....wassaat?
Brian
Brian decided to add:
You MUST be single...... she-who-must-be-obeyed
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