The Dispatch | Expert | Scudo Hub

I think you may be right as mine feels quite hard as its mostly running fairly empty.
Just got back from picking up/stuffing an old GL500 in mine and noticed how it feels smoother
with it loaded.

Out of curiosity I cut the ends off the old core and it somewhat  supports my
'It's been in there 18 years,just buy a new one' approach
This is after the flushing I did earlier this year too.
It may have been flushable given time but like Schrodingers cat, you'd never know its actual state until you looked

No, but I've often fancied getting one just to play with it.
My vans not a camper so I cant justify it on those grounds
but I spose it could be an 'emergency heater' if the central heating
breaks down this winter, or van 'preheater' if it gets bitterly cold.
Not sure the old core would be suitable to extract heat from an exhaust though as
the plastic headers might melt or catch fire or give off nasty fumes.

A shed heater would a good use for one though

I haz heat!
I found the write up below from 2011 on the Fiat forum
and basically copied that to change the heater core
Its a bit fiddly getting the fuse board out of the way but doable
I did put some clamps on the supply and return pipes
and didnt get much coolant leak in the cab.
less than a mugful I'd say
The new aftermarket one was slightly thicker and was scuffed a bit on insertion
the pipes gave me a  bit of a struggle to remove and refit but no major drama
I bled the system and topped up the header tank as it warmed up

So its in, not leaking and producing way more heat even
when the temp gauge is hardly showing anything.
At an indicated 60C or so it's toasty, I haven't even tried it at full running temp yet
Woo hoo!

Whilst running the motor to check for performance and leaks I tested all the electricals and found the indicators had stopped working
"Oh bollox! what have I broken now" I wondered but then realised they wont work if the
hazard warning relay is removed and stuffed it back in

I wont put the dash back together just yet as I want to improve the heater controls
back lights
Previously I'd put leds in place of the tiny blubs and they work but not very well
so will use an array of smd leds instead

Incidentally
My ad hoc test was to empty the old one
and blow through each one to see if I could detect any difference in resistance/flow
the new on was definitely easier to blow through
and when rinsing the old one in the sink I got quite a few lumps of crap
fall out with me not even trying to degunge it

The £33.60 for a new core was money well spent as even with all the faffing about
using rad flush and reverse flushing etc you still cant know for sure how clear it is.

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The write up:

Ok, My heater matrix leaked foul smelling and hot water inside the van (scudo 1.9 diesel) fixed in 1.5 hours.

You'll need star drives, two sizes and flat blade screwdriver, a washing up bowl or similar to catch water, some kitchen roll and a little patience.

Remove Glove box, and bottom cowling with air vents in, half the dash (passengers side) remove heater switch plate, cigarette/ashtray assembly. take of the gear knob (just pops off) there are about 15 screws in that little lot so get a pot to put them in. (took 25 mins)
Under glove box there's the fuse assembly and some relays, you only need to disconnect the ones that are attached to the heater cover.
undo the bolt and three screws that hold the fusebox and tie up as far to the left as possible (i used wire ties) took 10 mins

now you can see the two alloy water pipes that feed the heater matrix, these are held against the plastic matrix pipes with a simple clamp with screw. undo and drain (1 min and where the bowl comes in handy))

Three small screws hold the matrix in the heater body, undo and CAREFULLY, pull the matrix free of the heater. it slides out like a cassette right where the fuse assembly was and It looks like a little silver radiator.

I looked at mine and it was covered in leaves??? so i stuck my arm in the heater and pulled out as much muck as i could, inspecting the matrix which appeared to be ok, so i ran a hose/tap and cleaned it. filling the matrix with water and seeing if it was leaking....it didn't....so i put it back in the reverse order. remember to refill the radiator topup/expansion tank back up between min / max marks.
Before putting all the dash and facia back, i ran the van up to temp and turned on the fan ....... nice hot air....no water.... left it running for 10 mins constantly looking for leaks....none.

put it all back together and hey presto...... 85 mins

Hope it helps....

quote:
"JohnDragonMan wrote:

    it is so rare for an ecu to self destruct. its always down to something else."

I agree its usually poor connections or sensor/relay/other device failure
Did you open check clean and refit the ECU connectors?
Sometimes just remaking the connection is enough to cut through any oxidisation and get something working

Yep those door pockets are pretty useless so I stow my torch in the drivers door pocket.
Having a single passenger seat I made my own cup/mug/bottle holders with add stowage for the
usual crap (and sweeties) one accumulates

what manual?

CD's? Who uses CD's nowadays?
I gave away the Stock Clarion/PU stereo and bought a SH Sony Xplod for £25
it was in mint condition and it's  face off type with USB, BT, Aux in etc
You could put your whole CD collection a USB stick and play it from there
and it will handle your calls too or play media directly from your phone
If you really want go cheap ( who doesnt?) there are some half decent chinese ones for £30 ish
that do all the above but some have bloody annoying fake graphic equaliser displays that I'd avoid.
For example this one has DAB as well as BT USB etc  for £27!
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/186533281114?

Here's a pic of the area I took a while back with the bottom panel and the dash off
I currently have just the bottom curved panel off
It looks like as it is, the core would foul on the fuse board where the blue and green relays are.

This may be easily removable for all I know, I'll have to look closer if the next flush doesn't work
I can see that bendy support strap in front of the shiny heater pipes will have to be removed,
that's easy enough.
If I have to swap the core I'm hoping I can move the fuse board out of the way
without too much faffery

Where is the relay situated, can you get a meter in there to see if there is any power going out to the pump?

If my info is correct, power to the pump goes out of the relay on
pin 4, cable 121 ( blue) and goes into the pump on pin 3 cable 1235 ( blue)
presumably it changes number at a connector midway.

had a look at some diagrams and see the fuel pump is powered from Fuse F7 in BF01
my notes say BF01 is the "fuse box under bonnet"
so that's worth checking