A Conversation for Ask h2g2

Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 1

IctoanAWEWawi

On friday night I ttook the car out and noticed that the footwell of the passenger side was soaked with a strange fluid. The fluid is almost the consistency of diesel fuel, but with no noticable odour. No leaky bottles of anything in the car. All the fluid levels (brakes, power steering) are fine. Clutch and brakes operate properly. It is not water, too thick for that. It has not evapourated 4 days (and possibly more) later. I rarely use the car in the week so it could have occurred last weekend or anytime in between.
What else? Erm, it was noticably cold when I soaked up the excess to clean it. It looked greenish coloured (against a black carpet / plastic). Erm. The car is a Peugeot 306 diesel from 1995. No air con, but I did notice the heater / fans playing up last weekend, wowing and fluttering , not working on all settings, sounded like there was something maybe in the way of the fans, but it works just fine now.

Any ideas? I've had one idea mentioned but wanna see what ideas others have!


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 2

Whisky

Hmm, I've had a similar sort of problem with a Citroen ZX... have a look under the bonnet, there's probably a plastic panel running right across the car at the very back of the engine compartment, just under the windscreen...

Peek underneath it or remove it... Some car designs have 'dead spots' in there where liquid can't drain out (The ZX had a tendancy to fill the glove compartment with water if I didn't get in there ocassionaly and clear out the dead leaves in the autumn.

If it's not water then it might be a hydraulic leak from either the brake system or the clutch (if that's hydraulic - I've never worked on Peugeots so I'm not sure) check the reservoir levels...


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 3

Fathom


My guess would be coolant - leaking from the heater under the dashboard.

Any other fluid would immediately show a drop in level but the coolant loss will only show up once the engine has run and the level in the expansion tank (the clear plastic bottle attached to the radiator) has been readjusted.

Could be expensive to repair depending on how easy it is to reach the heater components.

F


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 4

IctoanAWEWawi

cheers for the replies!

reservoir levels seem fine. The amount of fluid dumped would have shown up in the level I believe.

Re: heater coolant. This is the same coolant as the engine coolant? Or is it a separate closed circuit just for the heater?


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 5

Fathom


It's the same coolant as the engine - it gets heated up by the engine and transfers some of this heat to a little radiator called the heater matrix which is hidden behind the dashboard in a plastic box.

The loss of fluid may take a while to show up because the fluid level is separate from the main body of the fuid - see comment about the expansion tank. Also there's quite a lot of coolant so the loss is much less noticeable.

Soak a little of the fuid up in a paper towel and test to see if it's inflammable. (Carefully and away from the car) If it burns it's either fuel - smells of petrol / diesel - or hydraulic fluid. If not it's rainwater which is clear and smells of nothing or coolant which is usually green or blue and smells vaguely sweet.

F


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 6

IctoanAWEWawi

b*gg*r
Sounds like the heater matrix then. Was greenish fluid. Didn;t smell of diesel (and diesel tends not to be greenish!) and def. not water.

More d*mn expense. Reading round the web seems to be a bit of controvesy about these on french cars. Seems the original lasts 100-120K miles and then the replacements go after 5-20k miles.

Think my dash is a one piece, which means steering wheel has to come off, which has an airbag so needs a special tool. Typical.


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 7

Fathom

Look closely under the dash. If its a hose it might not be too hard to replace and these are quite cheap. If it is the matrix (as opposed to The Matrix smiley - smiley) try a radiator sealant such as Radweld. Contrary to popular opinion these can work very successfully for years but they won't fix a leaky hose.

Good luck.

F


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 8

IctoanAWEWawi

excuse the swearing but **** &&$£*£*% *&"£*%"£ !!!!!!!

£500 ish!!!! What to do, flog it / junk it and buy a new one or fix it given that the car itself is probably not worth much more than twice this. But I really don;t need to be buying a new car right now.


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 9

Odo

Aye, the best of British to you. smiley - ok

When my heater matrix went both the driver and passenger wells were flooded in a pinkish coloured liquid. I guess different makes of cars are provided with different colours.

Keep your water levels topped up until you manage to get if fixed. By the time they'd put a new heater matrix in my car and then got the system running under pressure again a large leek had developed in my radiator. smiley - cross The ruddy car then had the cheek to go and fail it's MOT....... I hope yours turns out to be a simple and single job.


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 10

IctoanAWEWawi

if you don;t mind me asking, how much did it cost to replace yours?


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 11

Odo

£300 ish for the matrix, and then another hefty wallop for the radiator.

smiley - yikes and I thought parts were expensive for fiats!


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 12

IctoanAWEWawi

300 I could just about live with. Possibly since I really don't want to change the car. I know the Rad is on its way out soon as well as there is corrosion noticed on it.

smiley - bluesmiley - sadface

Half the problem is that it could be one of 2 matrixes and they know not which without actually looking at it. I think the actual part is about 50 quid and the rest is labour and vat. Should have been a car mechanic, knew it!


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 13

Whisky

First move... buy a Haynes Manual for your car... it'll only cost you a fiver or so and once you've read through it you might have the courage to do the job yourself...

Car mechanics aren't generally difficult and the only time a car of mine goes into the garage nowadays is if the job is going to be either very messy, it requires expensive tools or it's going to take me two days solid work, in winter without a garage smiley - brr


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 14

Odo

It's a smiley - cry story. If it's that ancient it might be time to wave it a fond farewell rather than chuck money at it. It's a lesson I've learnt the hard way, what with the matrix, radiator and it's MOT failure I chucked a lot of money at my old Punto because I relied on the thing and needed it in working order for work and the summer production rehearsals, fight calls etc.

Unfortunately about a month later the main fuel feed pipe snapped and would have cost a small fortune to repair, what with that and a dodgy clutch and a braking system that was on it's way out I finally got rid of the thing. (Ok then, actually B got rid of it for me but that's just a technicality!)

Really I should have ditched it much earlier; I'd have saved myself a lot of hassle and smiley - 2cents.

smiley - grr R***y cars!! At least you’ve got alternative transport, although I’ll admit it’s not exactly the time of year you want to be relying on it.

Good luck.


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 15

IctoanAWEWawi

well, just phoned halfords (sorry, theAA service centre) who reckoned about 300 quid. So phoned the main dealer back to cancel cos I ain;t spending 200 quid extra for no reason and, miraculously, they dropped the price from 500 quid ish to 343 quid!!!

Amazing what a bit of phoning around will do. It's just about worth it cos I know what their workmanship is like and I they know the car and me.

But yes, I think wwithin 12 months it will be gone smiley - sadface Has done me reasonably well and is not a bad car. Won't buy another one though, parts are too d*mn expensive!

Course, after all this it'll probably turnout to just be a split hose (which I will check tonight!).

As for car mechanics, well I am no novice there really. Bikes is more my thing, but am quite happy usually ripping em apart. But with the whole dash coming off and so on, its a bit of a task and I'd sooner it was done properly.


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 16

Odo

Any news?

That was a frantic bit of back peddling from the garage then. Amazing what a phone call can do. smiley - biggrin


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 17

IctoanAWEWawi

car goes in the garage thursday morning, should get it back friday, as apparently they need to take it apart to find out what model of matrix it is before they order it.

Wanna place a bet that they 'forget' about the discount come friday afternoon?


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 18

Fathom


I have to say that I would have tried the radiator sealant first before I handed over 350 quid for a new matrix.

F


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 19

IctoanAWEWawi

fair point, and probably exactly what I'd say to someone else!
But this way round I know it is fixed, and fixed for as long as I want to keep the car (which ain't long). OK, probably not a logically justifiable position, but it works for me, at this point in time.

Thanks for the help and advice though!


Strange fluids in the passenger footwell of my car

Post 20

Fathom


smiley - ok

F


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