My car is having a rough week with coolant

"deekster_caddy" (deekster_caddy) 06/30/2015 at 16:33 • Filed to: None

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Bad news, on Saturday the heater core let go, puking coolant all over the passenger floor. Good news, it all drained out through the holes in the floor.

Good news, I removed the heater hoses and capped them. Bad news, the only caps are “Help” brand and they are shit. It broke, puking coolant all over the place.

Good news, AAA. Bad news, they sent a wrecker instead of a ramp. My brother was driving at the time with 4 passengers, they had to wait 90 minutes...

Good news, I removed the heater hose nipple and replaced it with a pipe plug:

(really crappy pic out of focus with pipe plug in background)

Bad news, Kinja is not letting me line up my text and pictures.

Good news, I drove it to work today and so far no leaks!

Echo51 > deekster_caddy 06/30/2015 at 16:38

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I wouldn’t plug both heater pipe, i’d rather bend a 180 degree tube bend and stick between them, so you still have circulation in that part when the thermostat is closed.

deekster_caddy > Echo51 06/30/2015 at 16:47

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This car has a bypass hose from the thermostat housing back to the water pump so there is always circulation even when the thermostat is closed. The heater control valve actually shuts off coolant flow to the heater core - no fancy blend doors here!

Ah ha - found a pic of the bypass hose - basically follows the same flow path as the heater hoses:

Echo51 > deekster_caddy 06/30/2015 at 17:41

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Just making sure, glad to see you got it all covered. Race car bro(!) or just living in a warmer climate since you don’t need the heater functioning?

deekster_caddy > Echo51 06/30/2015 at 21:28

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No, I just ordered a heater core. Won’t need it until september though. It’s not a DD, but I do drive it in the winter occasionally. Well, it IS a racecar, sort of. More for drag racing though. Too big and heavy for a track car. Acceleration we can just override the mass problem with MOOAR POWWEEERRRR...