2017 Citroen Dispatch Cooling system / heater issues

[Mooknoir]

Hi All,

I wonder if anyone has had a similar issue or can shed any light on this for me.

I have a 17 plate Dispatch 1.6. Bought it used a year or so ago and it turned up with dirty looking coolant, flushed it out and refilled but went dirty quite quickly again, although it doesn't look like oil contamination I don't think. No other issues with the van until 2 weeks ago when the heating stopped working on the drivers side, passenger heating still works perfectly and blows hot but the drivers side is stone cold. This van does NOT have dual zone climate control but it does have A/C.

Was advised to flush the cooling system incase there was a blockage in the Heater Matrix, did this, but no difference and immediately after refilling it, the coolant became dirty again. A mechanic suggested it could be corrosion / rust in the cooling system if it has been previously filled with water and not coolant, so we flushed it again and ran some rust remover undiluted in the cooling system for around 200 miles, flushed it out and refilled with coolant again.

The coolant ran dirty again after a few minutes and the heating system is still cold on the drivers side and perfect on the passenger side.

The mechanic is suggesting a new Heater Matrix now, Do I need a new heater matrix or could it be something else? Any simple tests to tell what the issue is before the dash gets taken out?

Any help greatly appreciated.

[Mooknoir]

No one had a similar issue to this?

Any ideas what the possible causes of hot air on passenger side but cold air on drivers side could be?

[PaulC5]

If you could normally alter the temperature on the driver side and passenger side separately, then the warm air flap at the driver's side might not be moving to let warm air through. If done by cables then a cable might have come undone, if using switches and motors then a motor might not be working, in either case the flap might be broken.

[TheMorg]

I've got a similar problem currently, same van, although the coolant seems clean. Did you manage to fix this?

So far I've checked coolant level is ok, and the right vent temperature control motor is working (and the levers from it are moving).

[msj_audio]

I've got a similar problem with mine. Drivers side heating doesn't work, passenger side does.

Coolant also goes dirty very quickly, but I also seem to have a coolant leak. Garage has replaced the reservoir, but that didn't help. They then had it in again, couldn't find an obvious leak, so put some sealing stuff in as they suspect a small crack in the head gasket.

Coolant seemed fine briefly after that, but this week has started leaking again. No warning lights on the dash and temperature is absolutely fine, goes up to 90 and stays there.

Has anyone got any advice?

[SerialCitroenOwner]

I had the same problem at 100k miles on my 2017 Dispatch 2.0. Passenger side heating and cooling (air con) was working as it should, drivers side vents (at all levels - windscreen, foot and centre) would only provide ambient temperature air at a low rate. As this happened in autumn, I experienced both warm are on warm days and cold air on cold days, the opposite of what was needed. The air also held ambient moisture, so windscreen would not clear on the drivers side. The dealer identified a plastic diverter flap within the heater box getting stuck against a plastic vent moulding. Citroen replaced the whole heater box under warranty, even though the vehicle was out of its extended warranty on both time and mileage.

Unfortunately I’ve had exactly the symptoms occur at 131k. Replacement part is over £1,000, labour is around £1,500 as the process involves removing the entire dashboard apparently! Looking for alternative solutions at the moment.

[mickbaxter31]

I had the same issue on 2018 Dispatch, I removed the heater pipes last year and connected one side to a tap and the other side to a bucket. flushed it out and not change. I have since retired and decided to take one more go. I bought some rad flush and set up a tub with hot water, again connected some pipe to the heater matrix under the bonnet and used a irrigation pump from a fountain to pump the fluid, filled tub with hot water and the rad flush, left running for a few hours. The water was getting cold now so don't judge me I added an immersion element to reheat the water, I then with ignition on and a temp gauge measured the temp from one side to the other, still 6C difference. I was at a loss, I then decided to use an air line and very gently and I do me very gently as water does not compress blow out the reverse feed after removing the irrigation pump and the stuff that came out was unbelievable, reconnected and test temps again and you could physically feel the heat from the vents. I reconnected again for about another 30 mins to make sure the flush could do its work. Again very gently blew out the pipes refitted everything and Voila all good. Not sure how the matrix get blocked but it seems the far side, drivers side does. I have replaced the cambelt and water pump three times on this van so its had new coolant every time, it has just clocked over 270,000 so apart from a few slight issue has done well.