After my recent accident and other damage created by poor care taken by the towing company I have discovered a coolant leak coming from the two lines that appear to run from the heater to the bottom of the car in the front. It is not a heavy leak but enough that I will have to watch it until I can fix it. I also noticed steam coming out of my defroster vent this morning on the ride to work...not a lot but enough that it was visible. I turned on the vents and it smelt like coolant. What is the easiest way to fix this and am I right about the heater being the problem?

Thanks,

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Sounds to me like your heater core is leaking, allowing coolant to enter the vents.Have you noticed any leakage on the passenger side floorboard? Check it out for dampness.

Check the heater hoses in the front compartment that go to the heater core thru the firewall. Make sure their attached tite, may have gotten jarred loose. If their tight, your heater core broke. Not too big a job to change. its under the dash on the passenger side and not very expensive. Less than $50 new. I wouldnt bother putting a used one in for the work to save just a few dollars. Dont drive it unless you take off the two hoses and plug them both or connect the ends together on a piece of tubing. That bypasses the core completely till you have a chance to fix it. You dont want to boil it out, overheat the engine...or put in water that will freeze up overnite. Make sure anything you add is a 50/50 mix of antifreeze and water.

Heater core replacement procedure, shouldn't take more than an hour assuming you take a beer break in there somewhere:

https://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum2/HTML/043997.html

JazzMan

That coolant is nasty stuff too. My heater core let go on the highway and the fumes from it gave me a splitting headache before I could get home.

I had this happen soon after replacing a leaking heater core with a new one from the Fiero Store. It turns out the manufacturer did a lousy job of soldering one of the copper pipes to the main part of the heater core and it broke loose from vibration, causing coolant to pour all over the floor and come out the vents. Fix it before it gets any worse! Mine also started as just steam that I noticed periodically in the mornings on the way to school but when it finally broke loose it was fogging up the windows and eventually the car started to overheat. Luckily I still had my U-shaped piece of copper pipe in the car from when I was bypassing the old heater core. I bypassed it after the car cooled down and drove home.
After being exposed to all that steam I decided to increase my worrying by looking at the MSDS for the coolant I was using. It certainly is some very nasty stuff. If I recall correctly, ingestion of the liquid or inhalation of lots of vapor can lead to kidney failure and all sorts of other goodies! Watch out!

-Steven

You did let Kento near your car didn't you?-------------------------kidding

try the autozone website---$20 cheaper than their store price---only takes a few days to recieve and 1hr job.

By the way---you win for sexiest sig!!!

[This message has been edited by jeffndebrus (edited 02-24-2005).]

yup, sounds like the heater core. Someone did a picture writeup on PFF that was really good, it's a quick fix and easy too. There is another thread somewhere discussing good vs poor heater core products. And if it helps heres a great online source for parts!:

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John DuRette
***Custom 85 under construction, 87 Coupe in the driveway. The fun never ends!***

Got it fixed this morning...pretty easy job believe it or not. Figures though...now I need a new cap for my thermostat housing! Mine now has a leak. If its not one thing...its another....

Thanks to Jazzman for the awesome walkthru on this job!

quote Originally posted by powrmajik: Got it fixed this morning...pretty easy job believe it or not. Figures though...now I need a new cap for my thermostat housing! Mine now has a leak. If its not one thing...its another.... Thanks to Jazzman for the awesome walkthru on this job!

Swing by, I have 3 on the shelf or did you forget the one you have from the housing I did????