I got a lot of work done to Jem’s Mini a few years ago in replacing and repairing the inner and outer sills on both sides and welding some repairs in a couple of other areas but since then I’ve just done the bare minimum of a general check with the odd small job prior to getting an MOT. Now I find myself with a bit more time and finally my own proper garage to work in I figured Jem’s Mini was due a bit of time spent on it to sort some things that have needed doing for a while.

The first of which was a small water leak around the heater matrix. It had been dripping slightly for probably a couple of years! It was about time I took a look at it.

I expected to find, at best, the o-rings just needing replacing or the hose clamps needing tightening or maybe a slight hose split or, at worse, for the matrix to be leaking.  I wasn’t expecting to find the metal pipes that the hoses clamp over to have turned to dust! Why did Rover think it was a good idea to make them from aluminium?

Fortunately you can now buy stainless steel replacements fairly cheaply so I did!

Here’s the old and new compared. No wonder there was a leak.

New ones fitted.

Hoses on. You can see where it had been leaking onto the floor mat for a while.

Finally, given how gunky the water was that came out, I drained the whole water system, flushed it a couple of times with de-ionised water before filling with fresh ready mixed coolant.