Hi yaal,
well, had the usual coolant loss......half a tank within 10 miles, you could see it dripping around the back of the engine about level with the passenger seats! HBV i thought..!!!!!! Saw some instructions on how to replace by removing the plenum and loads of other stuff estimated a couple of hours. Pretty daunting really.
Anyhow found another bloke who said half an hour and only a couple of bits to remove.........so we tried this one.
Firstly remove wipers. then remove the windscreen bib, you need to lift the bottom w/screen rubber to find the 10 or so little plastic clips that turn 45degrees to release. lift away in 2 parts and lay on top of engine (didn't disconnect the wiring for the washers). unbolt the wiper motor arms (2 screws to the left of the engine bulkhead) one screw right at the back of the windscreen bulkhead, (to get to this you will need to unbolt the long arm from the top of the wiper motor mount, just a nut.) Unplug the wiper motor connector block. (we removed the 3 bolts to release the wiper motor, to help removal, it will still be connected to the control arms assembly by a wiring loom.) we did this to help remove the whole assembly out of the engine bay, it's easier with two blokes as one can hold the now floating wiper motor, while the other feeds the wiper assembly through the maze of pipes and tubes. Once out you will have all the room you need to replace the HBV with out problems. This proceedure took two blokes about 1 1/2 hours hard at it!!!!! but it means you don't have to disconnect all theose pipes tubes and the plenum!
Hope this saves you time and money....
Only thing is after all that, the fkn thing is still leaking from somewhere (so it wasn't the HBV after all).......
Anyone got any other ideas what's causing the leak, it drips alot from the back of the engine but viewed from under the car the drips are both sides and level with the passenger seats.........so it's traveling to back there from somewhere!!!!!!
Ideas???