Hi, yesterday the heater matrix on my TD5 sprung a leak. I bypassed it by connecting the input hose to the output hose with a small piece of copper pipe.
Can someone confirm if this is a safe medium-term fix or not. I could do without the expense of buying a new matrix at the moment and I have a 200 mile journey to do next weekend, would it cause any damage to run with this fix for a while . The temperature gauge is reading the same as it always does but I was thinking that the heater matrix would have been acting like a radiator and therefore it may run a bit hotter than normal. I'm a bit paranoid about overheating.

I wouldn't worry about it. If everything else is working correctly you should be fine. Heater Matrix's from Paddocks are only around the £50 mark for a TD5

The extra heat dissipation from a heater matrix is negligible if there's not air blowing through it. TD5s have all sorts of ingenious ways of maintaining their temperature. After a hard run on the motorway on a hot day I can hear all kinds of fans whirring that you never normally notice.

Great, thanks. As I thought, just needed a second opinion. Thanks