FTO AUSTRALIA

Well the time has come, got my heater matrix replcement, its being pressure trested by a guy in Seaford as we speak. Gonna change that bad boy on saturday/sunday. Might take some photos to visulize the pain.

I have a few questions though, my aircon will need to be de-gassed *cough* professionally *cough*, can anyone tell me where to undo on the low pressure side to vent, can't really see much from the workshop manuals.

Also the heater matrix was disconnected when i got the car and so i have no idea where the pipes to it are now routed, can anyone help me in either a photo, or a diagram so that i can see which to connect too.

Many thanks

PS Also got the pain of changing my tappets this weekend too, got the legnum vr4 ones from meek yesterday.

I managed to change the matrix without de-gassing the aircon. Bit tight but is possible. Save you $100 too. As for the pipes, as long as they havent removed them completely, they should be behind the engine on the passengers side. You are looking for 2 pipes about 2cm in diameter (they are the only ones close to that size.

how the hell do i get to the matrix without degassing?

everything ive read says i have to remove the evaporator, or do i remove most of the centre console and work from there?\

Dude dont degass the aircon, the front of your house will be clouded in white smoke and it will take at least half an hour to clear and the gas will kill your organs, just get it degassed professionally.

Well, you have to remove the dash (console out too). Pretty much have to do that anyway as the evaporator and most of the other units are bolted in at the top and you cant reach the nuts without taking out the dash. Once the dash is out, loosen the bolts for the units from the top and you can just sneak the matrix through. All I can say is that ive done it. Dash will take about 30 minutes to remove (if you know where the bolts are). There is a guide on my site (complete fto)

holy crap batman, thats a shedload of stuff to remove.

Wooooooooooooooooooo fun saturday for me

and sunday lol

I8A4RE wrote:and sunday lol

No faith?!?

lol, looking at it, it would probabl take me 2 days....but I would spend 4hrs procastinating about doing, 3 hs drinking up the courage, and 2 hrs fixing all the fiddly little pieces I brake removing the good damm thing

Balls, i forgot about how much plastic will break when my sausage hands get into those tiny japanese spaces.

Damn it, why couldn't my missus be interested in cars.

All I can say is be VERY careful with the stereo surround and Floor console.........

Thats fine, they're bust already, still looking to source some new ones.

Just want to make my car as good as it can be, so money must be spent, plus i love doing this stuff.

Well, I can get new genuine ones if that is what you are after (I get Japanese Trade price out of Tokyo). They arent really cheap though. Particularly with the drop in the Aussie dollar against the yen in the last few weeks. Current price for the floor console is around $120 and the stereo surround around $200. Compare this to the $450 that Mitsubishi Australia charge for the stereo surround (same part) and it doesnt seem quite so bad though.

Or to save yourself a lot of time and risk of breaking things, just get your aircon guy to degass your aircon and get it gassed up. So much easier just taking the evaporator out

Thats fine, they're bust already, still looking to source some new ones.

Or to save yourself a lot of time and risk of breaking things

a. its too late. they are already broken (as has already been said above), and

b. You cant take the evaporator out without removing the dash becuase there are nuts that have to be undone on the top of the unit which you cant reach unless the dash is out. Even if you could by some miracle, an aircon guy isnt going to try and contort themselved to reach nuts that they dont even know about. This means the console also has to come out and thus the surround.

and I ought to know. I would have removed more of them than anyone in Australia now. Im up to about 16 FTO's now that ive owned/wrecked.

Cheers for Dwayne.... Wooooooo

Actually the evaporator comes out very easily, i replaced my TX valve in the evaporator by removing the evaporator and i had no problems at all, i had it out in 15 mins. So easy.

And its only one nut on the top of the evaporator?

So you can reach it. I have to apologise in that case - would have thought that was damb near impossible. There are 2 nuts on the top of both units to the left of them. Maybe they can be reached as well. Still think its worth taking the dash out though. Save yourself the trouble of regassing the aircon. Takes me about 20 minutes to remove the dash (including console) these days

dstocks wrote:So you can reach it. I have to apologise in that case - would have thought that was damb near impossible. There are 2 nuts on the top of both units to the left of them. Maybe they can be reached as well. Still think its worth taking the dash out though. Save yourself the trouble of regassing the aircon. Takes me about 20 minutes to remove the dash (including console) these days

Yeah i guess i do have the facilities to gas and degas at home. Just im a bit skeptical of removing the dash, i have done it once before in one of my other cars and it never seems to go back without squeaking or having a vibrating noise afterwards lol