Well that was a bugger of a job! Not difficult, just fiddly. The matrix was definately shot, just take a look at the pictures!
First you have to remove the bottom of the dash on both the driver and passenger sides. These are held in by three torx head screws each and they literally just unscrew and pull off.
Then you need to pull the carpets back. On the driver's side the footrest stops the carpet pulling back too far, don't worry about it there will be enough access.
You are then faced with two black plastic shrouds one on each side of the centre console. You can see a clip poking through them, this is where they attach to the heater matrix housing. Slide the shroud backwards and it will come off the clip. There is also another clip holding it on to the centre console, I just wiggled it a bit and it came off.... As you can see there is definately a leak!
There is a pipe leading to the top of the transmission tunnel, this just pulls off.
Take the cap off the expansion bottle and disconnect the battery. Then it's just a case of making sure you have clamped off the coolent hoses in the engine bay properly (I got it a bit wrong and ended up with a small coolent lake in my passenger footwell before I could get the bucket in place.....)
Undo the screws holding the matrix in place. In their infinite wisdom
Volvo decided to use two different sizes of torx head screws on the housing. Why I ask you, why? Also there is a screw in between the two coolent pipes at the bottom of the matrix which you must undo to get the matrix housing off the pipes.
After that it's simple, pull the bottom of the matrix housing forwards and pull it out of the car. Clear up the spilt coolent. Remove the four screws holding the matrix into the housing and replace the matrix. Replace the O-ring seals on the coolent connectors and then put the matrix housing back in place. This is a right git to do and you have to use a fair bit of force to get the bottom of the housing to slide back into place as it fouls on the top of the transmission tunnel.
Put all the screws back in, make sure everything around the connectors is dry, top the coolent up, reconnect battery and then get the engine up to running temperature and have a good check for leaks. Take it for a good test drive. Check again for leaks, and put the rest of the trim back on when you're happy.
This is the old matrix.
It's buggered.
Here's a pic of the old matrix next to the new. Looks like an OEM part as the only difference I could see is where the old matrix had Volvo on it the new one had the brand name ground off it, everything else was identical and it had exactly the same weight and feel as the old one.
Took me nearly four hours but now I know how I reckon I could do it in less than two. If I can do it you can!
Cheers,
John
A addendum to this post from Volgrrr
I have just recently had to pull my heater out as coolant was leaking into the cabin. After pulling it out I found the heater core was in perfect condition (and found the problem was actually caused by my garage when they replaced the heater hoses - and in the process managed to damage an "O" ring seal).
I couldn't get the hoses to release from the snap-on connector and had to resort to literally destroying the snap-on connector to get the hoses out.
The following lists the small but irritating problems I encountered putting the heater unit back together again. I wish someone had told me before I found out the hard way.
1. Fit the the snap-on connector into the firewall with the cabin steel heater pipes inserted.
Reason: I initially fitted the snap-on connecter into the fire wall then tried to push the two steel heater pipes into the connector. The pipes would just not snap into place so I was forced to remove the snap-on connector from the firewall and while out fit the steel pipes firmly into the connector. I then proceeded to locate the connector plus attached steel pipes back into the firewall - a real breeze.
2. Don't tighten up the snap-on connector in the firewall until the heater core/matrix is back in place.
Reason: I found it necessary to be able to pull the heater steel pipes to one side away from the matrix so I could wiggle the matrix back into its correct location (this is not as easy as you might think).
3. Fit the steel pipes into the heater matrix.
Reason: Because the steel pipes have considerable movement it makes it relatively easy job to fit the pipes neatly into the matrix and lock into position with the clamp bracket and screw.
4. Fit the metal holding plate onto the snap-on connector and tighten up holding screws.
Tip:Throw away the 2 x Torx screws and replace them with hexagon headed screws as these will be much easier to tighten up with a mini-ratchet in the confined space between the engine and firewall.
5. Lubricate the heater hose ends with something like vaseline.
Reason: This makes it easier for the metal ends of the hoses to slide into the "O" seal rings without damaging or dislodging them. Test to make sure the hoses are are firmly located by lightly, but firmly tugging on each one.
Then go for a test run to make sure everything is O.K