Before replacing your heater core again, check your thermostat.
Dear Car Talk | Mar 01, 1999
Dear Tom and Ray:
smell of coolant inside the car and realized my heater core was leaking. Having
already replaced it once, and being short of cash, I merely disconnected the
hoses running to the heater box on the fire wall. I left the metal pipes,
including the one that I think has the radiator fan sensor. Now, I have no more
smell and no more leaking coolant. However, the car seems to be running cool.
The temperature gauge barely gets off "C." Is there any way I could have
affected the engine temperature by bypassing the heater core? -- John
TOM: Yes, but you would have affected it in the other direction.
RAY: Right. Since the heater core (the thing that provides heat to the passenger
compartment) is actually an extra little radiator, it helps cool the engine a
little bit when it's in use. Removing it from the circuit would make the engine
run hotter, if anything.
TOM: So I have to believe that the timing is just coincidence, and what you need
is a thermostat, John. Try swapping out the thermostat, and write us back if the
problem doesn't completely go away.
The annual cost of owning a good used car is about half as much as owning a new
car! How do you find a good used car? Order Tom and Ray's pamphlet "How to Buy a
Used Car: Things That Detroit and Tokyo Don't Want You to Know." Send $3 and a
stamped (55 cents), self-addressed, No. 10 envelope to Used Car, PO Box 6420,
Riverton, NJ 08077-6420.
?(C) 1999 by Tom and Ray Magliozzi and Doug Berman
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
smell of coolant inside the car and realized my heater core was leaking. Having
already replaced it once, and being short of cash, I merely disconnected the
hoses running to the heater box on the fire wall. I left the metal pipes,
including the one that I think has the radiator fan sensor. Now, I have no more
smell and no more leaking coolant. However, the car seems to be running cool.
The temperature gauge barely gets off "C." Is there any way I could have
affected the engine temperature by bypassing the heater core? -- John
TOM: Yes, but you would have affected it in the other direction.
RAY: Right. Since the heater core (the thing that provides heat to the passenger
compartment) is actually an extra little radiator, it helps cool the engine a
little bit when it's in use. Removing it from the circuit would make the engine
run hotter, if anything.
TOM: So I have to believe that the timing is just coincidence, and what you need
is a thermostat, John. Try swapping out the thermostat, and write us back if the
problem doesn't completely go away.
The annual cost of owning a good used car is about half as much as owning a new
car! How do you find a good used car? Order Tom and Ray's pamphlet "How to Buy a
Used Car: Things That Detroit and Tokyo Don't Want You to Know." Send $3 and a
stamped (55 cents), self-addressed, No. 10 envelope to Used Car, PO Box 6420,
Riverton, NJ 08077-6420.
?(C) 1999 by Tom and Ray Magliozzi and Doug Berman
Distributed by King Features Syndicate, Inc.
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