Are these cars prone to having faulty heater cores? My original failed in 2006. I replaced it with one from advance auto I believe. Now it's leaking again. Is there something that is causing these to keep leaking?

Is there a recommend replacement?

 

From my experience, heater cores in general don't last. I've had to replace the heater core in every car I've ever owned, and twice in my '02. I'd be happy getting 12 years out of one.

I don't know that I'd even recommend a Delco one as all of my Delco ones developed leaks. Even the original one in my '02 barely lasted 3 years (just long enough to be out of warranty )

Most recently bought a spectra for my '91 RS. Been in there 3 months, so far, so good, although it was a complete PITA to get it in the car. Literally took 4 hrs of messing with it to get it to both fit and still allow the blend door to operate.

 

Coolant went acidic. Needs to be changed more frequently

 

Once a year for regular coolant.

 

Get one from NAPA...

 

Could be quality of the replacement core or could be issues with old coolant or even the water you are using to mix it. Once a year flush and replace is cheap insurance and so is preblended coolant. There are also test strips you can dip into the coolant that test for about anything that can go wrong with it.

 

 

The corrosion inhibitors in conventional coolant are good for up to 5 years, so I would change it every 4 or 5 years. Once a year is pretty extreme and unnecessary...

 

USE DISTILLED WATER with your coolant. NO CORROSION.
Prestone used to sell purified water to go along with their coolant for a short time.
When I could not get that anymore, I switched to distilled.
On my 95 GMC K1500 truck, I did this from day one.
I crashed it after about 20 years, and the shop could not believe that the radiator was original.
It failed a few years ago, the plastic tank developed a crack, but the core still looked new.


Zinc anodes also help.