Blown heater core question

[brandon1186]

my car has been fogging up the windows lately with a very strong smell of antifreeze so i know my heater core was going south. so today i was driving and my low coolant light came on. I pulled over and right at the passenger side back subfram busing it was draining coolant very heavy. my question is don't the heater core dump the coolant into the cabin of the car if so why is mine leaking on the outside? I went to canadian tire and bought a 2 inch by 1/2 inch piece of copper and tied the heater hoses going into the firewall together vola no leak. have any of you ever tried tyo make it through the winter with a good 100 dollar 12 volt in car heater if so whats the make you used thanks in advance!!!!!

 

[sperold]

You are not going to make it through the winter without a heater. You can try stopleak, but it may only slow it down, it is a long shot to stop it completely. But it is worth a try. The grey bottle with the pellets in the bottom (at CTC) is your best hope. The electric heater sounds like an OK theory, but the heat just is not there.

 

[Gez89SHO]

I had a heater core go bad last year and fixed it myself. What I found is that the heater box is setup to leak to the outside in the event of failure, a nice feature.
Not sure on the electric heater but I wouln't try a band aid fix such as stop leak. That might not fix your heater, considering the large leak you're describing, but it may clog up another coolant passage in the engine, water pump, or radiator, giving you another problem.

 

[geomarathoner]

Kinda similar experience: I noticed a light fogging on the inside of the windshield which was hard to disperse even with max fan and heat. After wiping it off with a clean cloth I noticed an antifreeze smell. Guessed there might be a tiny core leak so I bypassed the core. That was 4 years ago and I've looked over the core replacement procedure in my shop manual but never gotten around to replacing it. Have a small electric heater but it's better to just dress for the cold. Let me know and I can find it and let you know the brand but it's only okay for a handwarmer but not much more. The car is always garaged and I have other choices to drive on really bad days.

 

[Vnuk1]

Yeah I did the Throttle Body Coolant bypass recently and now have a strong coolant smell inside the car but it's not leaking anywhere nor is the windows fogging up. I thought the Heater Core might be going out but I'm not low on coolant and it is not overheating so I'm clueless....

 

[sperold]

Yeah I did the Throttle Body Coolant bypass recently and now have a strong coolant smell inside the car but it's not leaking anywhere nor is the windows fogging up. I thought the Heater Core might be going out but I'm not low on coolant and it is not overheating so I'm clueless....

There is a rubber seal at the top of the firewall that seals against the hood when it closes. If this thing is not doing its job, the smells from the engine compartment hop across it and go right in your heating system air intake (near your windshield wipers). You have a very small coolant leak in you engine compartment that is stinking you out, may only be a few drops an hour, but when it hits something hot, you are going to smell it.