BMW Repair: BMW e30, bmw e30, antifreez

Question
QUESTION: Hi Nathan,
I've very recently purchased a BMW e30 318i. It had full service with 116000 on the clock.
Upon purchase i took it for a road trip of 30-350 miles. When driving this morning for some reason alot of water and steam started coming in through from under the left hand side passengers glove box. It smelt a bit like antifreeze, and when i touched the liquid it was watery not oil.
Soon after, the temp started going up after which i have now just parked it up.

Any suggestions as to what this mite be? i'm hoping its not a big job.

Also, any reccomendations to anything i should have done to the car before driving it to keep it up to scratch.

Kind regards,
Mo

ANSWER: It sounds like either the heater core or a hose that hooks up to the heater core has burst. the heater core sits under the dash it heats up with coolant from the engine and is then used to heat up the cabin of the car, that is why it smells like antifreez, and also why the vehicle heated up. If it is a heater core it is a tricky job.  hope this helps.  Thanks Nathan Babbitt      p.s.  there is nothing you could have done to prevent this from happenig

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Is the Heater Core also know as the Heater Matrix? I have been told that this may be the problem by a couple of people...
Thanks

Answer
I've never heard of a heater matrix, but then again im located in the USA and we may just not use that term here, but the heater core is under the dash it fills up hot coolant from the engine then air is blown through it and thats how you get hot air.      Hope that helps   Thanks Nathan Babbitt