Today I noticed that I had a small puddle of coolant inside my car. The exact location is the front passenger side. It appears to be leaking from behind my dash somewhere. Any suggestions as to what the problem is and how to fix it?

The only working theory I have is that it is my heater core or hose going to the heater core, I plain to tear my dash apart tomorrow to find out.

Thanks in Advance

 

heater core, sounds like you knew that though!

 

nice name by the way

 

Ho,

It could be just a hose, but that should be visible from the engine compartment. The heater core standpipes stub through the firewall so there is no hose inside the car (this is NOT a Ford or Honda, after all.)

Don't tear your dash apart - there's no need. Do an archive search and save yourself some headaches. The heater box can be removed without major surgery.

This would be a good time to do a flush/fill, too.

 

All the repair manuals say I need to take the dash apart to replace the heater core, if their is a better way please tell me.

As for the coment on my screen name thanks, I used to run a website called www.uoprostitute.com . The site got like 5k unique visitors a day. It was not a **** site but a gaming site, eventualy Electronic Arts tried to sue me over the site so it got shut down, but not without a fight.

 

I love the creative names Vader...LOL

 

I vote for the heater core.

 

TP,

What year/model is your car? Most ThridGens can throw up their heater cores by removing the passenger side hush panel, lower dash trim, and the lower right mounting bolt for the dash panel. Removing this large (5/16-8mm) bolt allows the technician to slightly flex the dash panel back toward the seats and gain access to the top edge heater core case screws that are otherwise inaccessible. Even if you have to remove the upper dash panel to access the top case screws, there are only four screws in the defroster outlet and seven screws along the rear edge of the dash pad - and it's out. Either way, there is nothing more that should have to be removed to access the heater core case.

I did my core replacement on my '86 TA in about 45 minutes, including cleaning up all the leaked coolant from the isulation, carpet, etc. (hot water is a good way to rinse it out). Unfortunately, I did this after getting the THIRD replacement core, since the standpipe angles on the first two replacements were not quite correct to allow the hoses to clear the back of the right cylinder head. I finally took the original to the parts store to match the angles, and one of the several replacements they had was close enough to fit. The hint - take youy old core to match it up.

It may be a good idea to test the new core before installing it. Flush through it with hot tap water to clean out any production debris and allow it to stand on a piece of paper for about ten minutes to check for seepage. It may save you some aggrevation and gives you time to clean up the leaked coolant from the sound deadening insulation and carpets.

 

Heater cores, They suck... Or at least replacing them does. I worked on the **** for almost ten hours and I am still not done. I must have done something wrong. I had to remove every damm screw from the dash almost just to bend it back barley enough to remove the heater core.

Oh and another thing how the hell are you aspoused to put the heater core back in without damaging it. I mean wtf, their is no space and the thing goes in at an angle plus you have to line up two pipes so they fit through the firewall. AHH it sucks, my dash is still not all the way put back together. I just hope everything works when I put it back in the morning.