Smell of Coolant in cabin, heater core?

[b1lly]

Hi,

I have a constant smell of coolant within the cabin, I think maybe the heater core has given up.

I searched for at least 20 minutes for any information on how to replace but could not find anything here.

How hard/easy would it be to replace?

Cheers!

[accentstencil]

Unfortunately it is a major job, most of the dash has to come out.

[benno145]

I just had my heater core replaced and yeh it was on the pricey side. It was about 150 for the heater core itself + 6hrs labour + regass air con. Your looking at between $700 to $900 to get it done. I went to a reputable mechanic ( a bit on the pricey side but is great at what he does) and it cost me $800.

[commsirac]

That's one of the reasons I dont like these new fangled cars!......I think I can smell coolant in mine too when the heater is running full bore.

Burying heater cores and aircon evaporators under the dash requiring a full day's labour to fit and remove is ludicrous.
Obviously it is easy to build the cars installing these items first, however, the contempt for the consumer in this design brief is galling.
Perhaps it saves a little money not to design these so they can be removed easily, but it shows contempt for the customer. Perhaps they expect us to buy a new car every three years or is it just something to keep the repairers in business.

[s_ikari2015]

New design systems actually calculate how easy or difficult it will be for a human being to actually provide service to all parts. They have computer models of mechanics removing heater cores... tehehe

Doesn't help here.

But yes, my car also has a strong smell of coolant from inside the cabin, nothing outside at all. The windscreen also gets fogged up when I drive for more than 30 minutes. I'm not looking forward to it because once I include replacing the indicator stalk, fixing the aircon, and flushing the transmission it will eat up my entire paycheck, and that's bad with a mortgage. That and they'll need the car for the whole day, probably even 2 days.

[Julie]

Yeh sounds like the heater core is gone. We had this happen, it is something that you can fix yourself but it is a bitch of a job, it takes forever and you have to pull out pretty much all of your dash. But the alternative is forking out a small fortune to have a professional do the job.

If you do decide to diy call around when u go to buy the heater core, we picked one up for $115 at a holden dealer 20 mins away but our local 10 mins away holden dealer wanted $300+ bloody ridiculous lol. I'd give doing it yourself a shot, unless you are completely clueless when it comes to undoing shyteloads of screws. I'd say a gregorys manual would have instructions how to do it.

[benno145]

I thought about atempting it but like you said, for something so little its a big job. Plus its my daily so if somthing went wrong, i would be catching a taki to work. hehe
And yeh my window would fog up as well. Just be carefull if your still driving it. Keep a firm eye on the temp guage. Thats all you need to do is cook your motor.

[pablo]

Join the club!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once removed,I found that the core was OK, but what was leaking was the stupidly designed seal washers where the pipes bolted onto the core. The replacement core had the bloody pipes welded on, like they should have been done in the first place. Trade price of core was $100 a couple of years ago.

Pablo

[teddybear]

I pitty you poor buggar , as I have just done mine recently and yes it leaked from the same seals as yours.

But some very good advice is, I would disconnect now before it totaly blows out and you empty your car of coolant and blow the head gasket or something. just do a by pass for the time being (ie a piece of pipe the same size as the heater core and get some ring clamps. Trust me, as Mine blew right out emptied the water in seconds and there went the head gasket as well.

So then i had a heater core and a head gasket to do .
And get a book that show you how to do it , as you WILL need it and have patients lots of!!!!.


Teddy

[b1lly]

Hi all,

Thanks for the replies! I had it done once on my VR which Holden told me would require the entire dash to be removed ($1500), however a radiator place around the corner did it by simply cutting the old one out and fiddling the new one in for $500.00.

I have read there is a link to a download somewhere to download the service manual, would someone be able to provide this to me via private message? I'd buy one (and I own several), but I am short on money especially now with the core having gone to heaven.

Cheers!

[b1lly]

I am thinking of doing it myself, but an annoying question remains.
Is it safe to disconnect the AC? Is the gas poisonous?

[accentstencil]

It is dangerous and illegal to let the gas escape. The system should be evacuated by licensed air con (refrigeration) mechanic.
I've never replaced a heater core but I don't think it is necessary to disconnect the A/C to do it.

[b1lly]

I see, would the VR-VS quick hack of replacing the Heater core by cutting through the piping work?

[accentstencil]

I seem to recall that the VT, VX cores can't be removed that way.

[vxcalais_01]

This is darn rediculous........something so important cost so much to fix and so difficult. THey should have made room for it in the engine bay, or at least accessible from there, or even clip off access to where it is. Its freezing now, 3.5 degrees in Melbourne last few days, gonna be hard to tell me not to use my heater and re route it. It would be better to drop in some Holden pellets or Bars stop leak and give that a try than just disconnect it.

[pablo]

Shop around to find a mechanic who is very familiar in changing cores. When I had to replace mine, the local Holden dealer quoted around the $800-$900. I then found a local bloke who told me that he has changed quite a few, "common problem" he said. He then quoted me $290 for labour plus parts.
Job ended costing $520 all up. New heater core, heater hoses, coolant, aircon gas plus the usual rag cost. That was 2 years ago. It took less than 6 hours to do, so if they are going to charge $100 per hour ???, thats only $600 labour plus parts, ..get a few quotes!

Pablo

[vxcalais_01]

Its still very expensive for what it is.

[Cobez]

Not sure about VT / VX, but i had my heater core replaced today on my VN / VP, they didn't have to remove the dash, they got the old one out, and the new one in and working great (no more leak or smell, heater etc works fantastic). It's just a bit harder. Cost me $280 at mates rates as my mechanic called me in a favour he owed, but the standard price i was originally told was $400 parts and labour.

But on the VT / VX they may to remove the dash, which may be alot more expensive due to labour.

[accentstencil]

Not sure about VT / VX, but i had my heater core replaced today on my VN / VP, they didn't have to remove the dash, they got the old one out, and the new one in and working great (no more leak or smell, heater etc works fantastic). It's just a bit harder. Cost me $280 at mates rates as my mechanic called me in a favour he owed, but the standard price i was originally told was $400 parts and labour.

But on the VT / VX they may to remove the dash, which may be alot more expensive due to labour.

I think Holden found the heater core in a VN-VP too easy to replace so they had to change the design for newer models.

[vxcalais_01]

I think Holden found the heater core in a VN-VP too easy to replace so they had to change the design for newer models.

Yeah that sounds about right, typical.