Hey all,

This weekend I was driving back from work, its been like 90* out here in MN which is insane, and my car kept running hot, above 4k rpms. Easy fix I thought, its just the belt being too loose, but when I got home I ended up sealing my floor was SOAKED in coolant. I'm talking sitting water by where the trunk release is. I checked the hose going from the engine into the firewall and there were no signs of leaks, good. I check under the dash and I can see coolant has been leaking from the heater box. So hoping I'd get lucky I pulled the side off the box and saw one of the heater hose clamps was covered in corrosion. I assumed it was just a leaky hose so I replaced that, but immediately it was leaking. Thought I just hadn't tightened it enough so I tighten it down some more, but still there is absolutely no change. Still confused, I figure i might as well bleed the coolant system and just see if I hear or see any leaks. Once I did that I noticed that it was in fact not coming from the hose, but from where the actuator is above it. I cannot tell if it is from the actuator or from the metal ring around the brass(?) hose wearing through the metal and causing a small leak. You'll be able to see what I mean in the video. When I turn the heat from hot to cold there tends to be a little air bubble that forms and I can hear the pressure coming out of it. Again this could just be a leak in the metal and when the door opens / closes the pressure change causes the coolant to leak out. It leaks whether the door is open, closed or partially open so I do not think the issue is just that it moves out too far. I have not had this happen till this weekend so I don't know what caused it, but yeah its pretty bad and I'm just trying to find a way to fix this w/o having to take off the dash.

I found zero threads mentioning this issue, so I don't know how common this problem is, but basically I just want to know is this even fixable or do I just need to replace the whole damn thing.

Stephen

video:

 

Looks like you need a new heater core. You could try bypassing it for the time being with a single hose from under the oil stand to the passenger side.