Well I noticed the car was using a lot of coolant so I checked under the car and sure enough there was a leak. The leak is by the cat meaning the heater core. Is there anyway to bypass the heater core until I can get a new one? Like connect the two heater hoses together? Just to stop it from leaking until I can fix the problem. Also anyone know of any shortcuts when it comes to replacing the core or should I follow Haynes all the way?

 

Like connect the two heater hoses together? Just to stop it from leaking until I can fix the problem.

You said it That is what I would do.

 

Cool I didn't know if that would work or not. This is just a temp fix to keep the fluid levels ok until I can get down to fixing the problem.

 

Well I did it today and it worked. Problem solved No leaks until I can get a new core.

 

I just had to bypass my heater core too. My car was leaking all in the passengers side, I had a good size puddle of green fluid. My car was running too hot and I had only driven a couple miles. I didn't think I'd make it home and there wasn't an auto parts store near by or a gas station. I luckily saw a Midas about a block down and payed the bastards $60 to bypass my heater core. Its such an easy fix to do on your own too. The guy had a thirdgen of his own so he knew how these cars are and had done the same thing on his. I was gonna get charged a total of $120 because they also did a whole cooling system check (which I knew was fine) but the guy cut me break because he's a third gen fan and just charged me for the bypass. It was still too much for that fix, but oh well at least it got my car running at the right temp and right now here in SoCal I don't need my heater.

 

Yea it was fairly easy to do. I luckily had some copper piping laying around to connect the hoses with. I just cut the damn hoses off the heater pipes because they were stuck on pretty good and I didn't want to risk breaking those. I noticed the puddle under my car dripping near the cat. There was no coolant in the car just under the car and it was dripping pretty bad. Car ran warm but had enough coolant in it to keep it from overheating. That sucks they charged you for the bypass. Took me about 15mins to do and cost me nothing. Luckily the guy was cool and didn't run up the price on you.