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heat core leak

coolvxss

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I took mums car to get new CAS fitted couple days ago. i knew it had a water leak so i asked the mechanic to have a look while his fixing it. He said the water leak was coming from the heater core and it will cost $800 to fix because have to take whole dash apart to get to it.

I have never seen a heater core or how it works, but was thinking that if the heater core is inside the car, wouldnt the water be leaking under the dash? Not all over the driveway? cheers
 

camstatic

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It'll run out of a drain pipe which runs from a catchment tray under the heater core. I know a way to get a heater core in in about an hour if you're keen and have: Some kind of mechanical saw, preferably recipro, a new heater core, a couple of lengths of heater hose, and 4 hose clamps?
 

Morton

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This is why it's an $800 job:

MortonVQ_59.jpg





The gold radiator box with two tubes up the front of this picture, is the heater core:

MortonVQ_62.jpg
 

Morton

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It'll run out of a drain pipe which runs from a catchment tray under the heater core. I know a way to get a heater core in in about an hour if you're keen and have: Some kind of mechanical saw, preferably recipro, a new heater core, a couple of lengths of heater hose, and 4 hose clamps?

lmao, I know exactly what you're thinking :p cut the core off at the tubes, pull the old one out sideways, cut down the new one, fill in the cut pipe with hoses :p

You dodgy bastard, I like your style ^_^
 

camstatic

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What can I say, it works? :p
 

MasterOfReality

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Check the drain tubes first, they just might be blocked.

If the heater core needs to be replaced, just do it with the shortcut method, less stuffing around, cheaper and you wont have a million extra rattles in the dash.
 

camstatic

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^^ + If you're worried about the lengths of hose blowing off: If you cut the pipes properly they should last for years to come (mine has), and if you want to be absolutely double ultra certain, you can get hand operated tools to lip the ends of the pipes.
 

coolvxss

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**** this sounds like a tough job. How much is the new heater core? where do they usually leak from? the actual heater core or the hoses that connect to it? Its almost cheaper to go buy a new car haha. $200 to replace CAS sensor, and 800 to replace heater core = another VN haha
 

camstatic

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New heater core is about $150, give or take 50 depending on where you buy from. It leaks from the core, the core expands and splits over time, a mate of mine who recores radiators explained that they have little side-bracing, which is why they split. Crank angle sensors don't normally cost that much in my experience, and are a walk in the park to swap over, provided you can get the harmonic balancer off.

Another thing would be to find a workshop that will perform the shortcut method in exchange for no waranty or something along those lines, the labour will be 1/8th what you're looking at now.
 

coolvxss

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Cheers. I made a braket and everything just to get the bolt off harmonic bal, i thought that was the hard bit, but once got bolt off, couldnt get bal off, so just paid few bux extra to get it all done. Just worried about water leak now. Its was a pretty slow leak but mechanic said it will get worse then all of sudden will dump all of water at once.

Was thinking this avo, We had to top up water every couple weeks, but never seen water on ground, but ever since weather has got cold here, started using heater, and now there it always puddle water on ground. is it just coincidence or the leak gets worse over time?

If i dont use heater would it last longer before have to replace? or does water always flow the same whether i use heater or not?
 
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