Heater

[S555MRJ]

Correct that's exactly what I did and the car has been running like this for two weeks now. On the forum I mentionned people usually simply invert the hoses and it resolves the heat problem but I prefered to do a backflush of the heater before to collect all the garbage coming off the heater in my bucket instead of pushing it into the cooling system !

LOL good thinking. I might have to try this mate, cheers for the heads up

[chris1712]

Been trying this today, can't for the life of me get the original hoses OFF! They're well an truly stuck on there, yes I've removed the clips :P. I guess I need to get it nice and toasty to make the rubber a bit more malleable, but then don't I run the risk of hot coolant coming out all over me?

[lcd]

Hi Chris,

Dont worry about coolant coming out when you unplug the hoses you will see that almost nothing comes out but you'd better not do it after a two hours trip of course because it can get very hot. I did it when the car was almost cold (2km trip just before doing it) and it was fine.

I sprayed WD40 generously on the hoses a few hours before trying to unplug them and they came out very easily. It might help a lot as my local mechanic was unable to take them off when I asked him last time I went for service. I thought it would be a nightmare to do it myself but it finally took me about 2 minutes ! Hope it helps...

[chris1712]

Thanks I'll give WD40 a try next, got some time off work in November so gonna leave it until then for now. Will report back with my findings!

[sohail579]

i know im digging up this old post but can anyone help me i have the same issue and looking to flush my heater matrix but can somone tell me what size pipe i should get?

thanks

[andyw114]

Just been reading through this post and there is some great information here. Just got myself a T-sport and the heater is not great. So i will have to try & back flush it as recommended here. 

[morgie]

Good luck with that.  Hopefully the steps here are clear - http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/76133-heater/?do=findComment&comment=972589  Realised the photos I was hosting have been lost - will see if I can find them and upload them else where.

Is your 2004 T Sport a pre face lift?

 

 

 

[TomdeGuerre]

On 09/10/2011 at 2:42 PM, b1gpkr001 said:

Descaler will melt any plastic pipes. I'm a aircraft engineer and we have problems with the hot water systems sometimes and we can't use descaled in the system due to plastic parts and seals. 

They must be some length of heater hoses to go from the aircraft engines up to the cockpit. And then the ones to the cabin. Strewth. 

[andyw114]

1 hour ago, morgie said:

Good luck with that.  Hopefully the steps here are clear - http://www.toyotaownersclub.com/forums/topic/76133-heater/?do=findComment&comment=972589  Realised the photos I was hosting have been lost - will see if I can find them and upload them else where.

Is your 2004 T Sport a pre face lift?

 

 

 

Yes its the pre facelift model.

I have some heat, so i think i will wait until the summer to do it. If the matrix then springs a leak, i will not have to freeze to death while waiting for a new one.

[s.illes79]

I have some heating issues as well:

- sometimes luke warm some times cold - mostly cold outside air temp.

- engine coolant level ok - a garage tried to flush it - but made no diff whatsoever 

- engine not overheating , fan kicks in

- both pipes hot 

- pollen filter is new

any ideas?

 

 

 

[trir55]

On 1/25/2010 at 11:30 PM, limecc said:

I have been reading these posts with great interest as my wife has been giving me earache for over a year because of the lack of heat. When she swopped cars I was forced into doing the reverse flush and powerwasher treatment but this only had minimal success from the bulkhead. Finally last weekend, faced with a hefty bill for a heater matrix anyway, I had nothing to lose trying to get the old one clear. It now burns hands even on full blower! This is how I did it:

1. Disconnect the heater pipes going to the matrix and plug them with a bung of some description to save coolant loss and effort repriming.

2. Attach a temporary hose to one of the stubs, take a big breath and blow out the coolant from the matrix. It will feel quite clear with no restriction.

3. Remove glovebox. Disconnect the clamps that are local to the matrix in the passenger footwell, and push the alloy pipes out of the way.

4. The matrix will withdraw 90% of the way but not be able to pass the engine management unit mount. Cutting the plastic bracket on the blower housing would be the easiest solution at this point, having one less mounting point for the ecu would be no detriment. Otherwise, remove the two screws securing the ecu and swing it down and unclip the wiring harness from the blower.

5. Don't try what I did and split the blower housing. There are two inaccessable screws at the back and it won't work. Don't be daunted, unbolt the whole housing instead and it will drop just enough to get the matrix by. There are some hard to spot screws!

6. Away from the car, remove the plastic deflector inside the inlet stub on the matrix. The inlet side had a blob of red paint and this goes to the bottom of the car as the matrix is not assymetrical.

7. Clean the matrix and assemble in reverse order. Fill matrix before connecting pipes at bulkhead, and check for leaks before bolting the blower back into position. I left the deflector out of the pipe to encourage more flow to the rear of the matrix.

I tried limescale remover, kettle descaler, power washer, power shower, violently shaking it empty, everything! I was getting grains of very hard limescale deposits out and also little pink crystal-like rocks of anti-freeze. The pink staining was coming out for ages - it took 1.1/2 hrs before I was happy in the end. I had a hot hairdryer on the outside of the empty matrix to dry it out internally, and try and crack any scale deposits inside. Then more flushing, and more acid cleaning etc. Borrowing Marigolds for protection, I ran scalding water on the outside to help the acid solutions work.

I think the deposits were acting as an insulator, preventing heat transfer, as I had no restriction or air locks, and my heater was probably one of the worst affected in this thread. If all you get is warm air when the blower is on the lowest speed and max temp, and cold air on max blow despite the pipes to/from the matrix being stinking hot, then you need a new matrix or to clean the old one. I think there is only a slim chance it will be an actuator or flap problem. The internal deflector and long pipes from the bulkhead mean an effective clean can only be done with the matrix out IMHO. If you overdo the clean then you've lost nothing, but be sure to give it hell - you hate the little bug**r. It's not technically difficult to get out, just damn awkward. I kept remembering my cash shortage as an incentive. Back to favourable terms with the missus and my own car too..

Where are the bolts to drop the whole blower housing? is the last one that hex head bolt hidden behind the bundle of ECU wiring or is there another one tucked away somewhere? thanks

[trir55]

49 minutes ago, trir55 said:

Where are the bolts to drop the whole blower housing? is the last one that hex head bolt hidden behind the bundle of ECU wiring or is there another one tucked away somewhere? thanks

Some pics of how far I got

https://imgur.com/gallery/He7YCEi

 

[oldcodger]

Hi,

This might help ..?   ( from a US Corolla manual)

 

55 - HVAC.pdf

[trir55]

10 hours ago, oldcodger said:

Hi,

This might help ..?   ( from a US Corolla manual)

 

55 - HVAC.pdf 1.35 MB · 2 downloads

Thank you, that's nearly it, except mine is left hand drive and I don't have my dash disassembled, looking through it I don't think it shows the blower assembly coming out? 

[oldcodger]

Cannot find anything in that manual about the blower motor removal, though looks like  there are some ytubes on removing the blower and the heater matrix.

Did find this section showing some of the dash fittings.

71 - Instrument Panel.pdf

[trir55]

4 hours ago, oldcodger said:

Cannot find anything in that manual about the blower motor removal, though looks like  there are some ytubes on removing the blower and the heater matrix.

Did find this section showing some of the dash fittings.

71 - Instrument Panel.pdf 404.97 kB · 0 downloads

I've found some YouTube on flushing the matrix, did you find one on removing it? Are you able to share a link? 

[oldcodger]

The Haynes Workshop Manual details the whole procedure, but the way they do it by is discharging the air con and removing the whole fascia  and then removing the actual unit  with the blower unit attached ,   then " undo the nuts  / bolts securing  the blower unit and split from  the heater housing "

That seems to imply, apart from the bolts securing the blower unit to the bulkhead its still well secured to the heater unit body and expect some of the fastening as well hidden until its removed from the car ?

That bracket thats stopping it coming out any more, suspect thats welded to the bulkhead / hidden by the blower body.

https://haynes.com/en-gb/toyota/corolla/2002-2004-16-petrol-69908

 

Can it be removed without all that  ?  hard to say as some of the videos only show the whole assembly removed from the car.

These are what we found on ytube  that may be useful   ....  though rough quality ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyZnEGTkid8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioB0NprXtIk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnXjMz3ujm4

 

[trir55]

On 11/12/2023 at 5:52 PM, oldcodger said:

The Haynes Workshop Manual details the whole procedure, but the way they do it by is discharging the air con and removing the whole fascia  and then removing the actual unit  with the blower unit attached ,   then " undo the nuts  / bolts securing  the blower unit and split from  the heater housing "

That seems to imply, apart from the bolts securing the blower unit to the bulkhead its still well secured to the heater unit body and expect some of the fastening as well hidden until its removed from the car ?

That bracket thats stopping it coming out any more, suspect thats welded to the bulkhead / hidden by the blower body.

https://haynes.com/en-gb/toyota/corolla/2002-2004-16-petrol-69908

 

Can it be removed without all that  ?  hard to say as some of the videos only show the whole assembly removed from the car.

These are what we found on ytube  that may be useful   ....  though rough quality ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyZnEGTkid8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioB0NprXtIk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OnXjMz3ujm4

 

Oh my lord, the disassembly on those 3 videos is scary, the closest is the second one but it's left hand drive (I'm in england so RHD) so thankfully all those pipes were on the passenger side, i had it comparatively easy, just my first time and made a bit of a faff of it. If i'd not bothered taking about 6 screws out of the blower housing and trying to split the housing it'd have been about 8 clips overall and about 5 screws, but yes I had to cut the bracket down as shown in another thread. I also had an issue with the stiff metal hoses being difficult to get out the way. Anyway, heat restored, even with AC running to de-mist I still get hot air!! Wow!! if anyone has any questions I've got this thread watched and I'll try to set it to email me, if that's long dead then my gmail address is like my username but trif instead of trir - I apparently did a typo making my forum account, lol - i'm not typing it out exactly as i'll get a ton of spam 🙂

 

edit: P.S. Dimensions for a 2004 Corolla VVTLi 1.8L (T Sport - post facelift) height 180mm (height being from inlet pipe to outlet pipe as it inserts "sideways") length 220mm (229mm overall to end of inlets) however you'll struggle to get that in without trimming more plastic away as it's a wrestle to get the factory one out, I got a slightly smaller one 210 overall, probably 200m active grill 

 

http://www.demisterman.co.uk/Toyota/Toyota Avensis 2003-2008 heater matrix.php

[oldcodger]

Glad you got it sorted    

Any more pics of what parts of the blower you actually removed or were able to push out of the way?

[trir55]

It turns out I dont think unbolting the blower motor housing helped, if anything it dropping down got more in the way, it's a lot of awkward bolts as well! I think just remove the pipe cover, drop the ECU and remove the footwell vent (clips only) 

then just cut away this screw-hole (faint red highlight outline where I cut) on the right of the 2 ECU screws (it'll hold fine without and you can add a cable tie if you like) just push/wrestle the pipes out the way when you pull out and insert the matrix - 2nd person helps for this bit, also pulling the strip of plastic below the glovebox as that also gets in the way a bit

https://imgur.com/gallery/KV3s5Jd

 

P.S. this is the inside of my old matrix! https://imgur.com/gallery/vgaEV09

[oldcodger]

Thanks for that,  have saved your comments and pics,  ours is still blowing good and warm, but at 17 years old you never know !

Think yours at 19 years old has done well,  a neighbours heater matrix , looking very similar to the Toyotas, leaked on his 5 year old Corsa.

[trir55]

Something something nothing is built to last these days! 

 

I'm only in my 30s but I feel this in my soul, lol, it's so bad these days