Help, Coolant coming in passengers air vent?!

[MAVPR]

So yeah I get my 97 GTS out for its first drive this year (been very busy) and my brother in passenger seat feels some burning on his foot. Coolant is coming out of the vent at his feet :S...

Ok so I presume the only way this can happen is if the heat exchanger (heater matrix) has a hole in it?

Has this ever happened to anyone else? If so is it a difficult fix?

Thanks for any help

 

[JonB]

Heater Core SHOT..........

This is caused by NOT faithfully flushing - refilling cooolant every 3-4 years.... the core is the weakest link and corrosion eats it

 

[MAVPR]

Hmm I have owned it for 3 years and flushed it last year and had it done right before I had it shipped to me, car had a full service history before I bought her and only 6000 miles. But yes I agree that is the problem :S... Difficult to change out? Any one know how much a new one will cost?

 

[Steve-Indy]

Short term, you can bypass heater core.

I personally try to avoid this issue on our GenI's and II's with frequent coolant changes AND by keeping water valve open (turn dial to red zone) year around to avoid prolonged stagnation of coolant in the heater core. Then by using the distribution selector, you can select heat (turn dial to right of center) or cool(turn dial to left of center).

 

[Martin]

It's kind of a pain in the butt job - but nothing that you can't accomplish in a weekend or so. In short, you've got to:
- drain the coolant and disconnect all the heater hoses from the heater box assembly.
- remove the HVAC air box / blower assembly
- remove the passenger side knee bolster and the big steel plate behind it
- remove the air ducts from the heater assembly
- open up the heater assembly housing cover
- mark and remove all the vacuum lines (I typically use colored electrical tape to make sure I get them back the way they are supposed to go - fortunately this car doesn't have many of them).
- unbolt the heater assembly from both inside the passenger footwell and from the engine compartment.
- pull out the heater assembly
- remove the heater core from the heater assembly.

To put it all back together, reverse the above. Make sure you fill the heater core up when you are putting things back together - otherwise you'll have a ton of air in the system and it will be a pain to burp.

 

[MAVPR]

Yep that does sound like a pain, ah well I guess I should get to it... May be back with a few more questions at some point.

Thanks for the help guys.

 

[eucharistos]

good info, a couple of questions:

Short term, you can bypass heater core......

any reason just short term, if one doesn't need the heater can it be bypassed permanently?

....AND by keeping water valve open (turn dial to red zone) year around to avoid prolonged stagnation of coolant in the heater core. Then by using the distribution selector, you can select heat (turn dial to right of center) or cool(turn dial to left of center).

so this will have heated air (at least hot water flowing thru the heater core) all the time?

 

[Steve-Indy]

Yes, I keep the heater core in the active coolant pathway year round...no dead spots, so hopefully greater protection when combined with frequent coolant changes. This is totally independent from cooling the cockpit with the A/C.

As to the short term "fix" needed above, just bypass the heater core as some of the Island and South American Viper Brothers have done.

 

[eucharistos]

thanks steve

hope i never have to, but good to know. last winter was a cold one down here and i used the heater only 2 or 3 times. before i went to hiflows, i never used the heater