So this past weekend I pulled the engine out to replace a bunch of parts on it. Yesterday I was dropping it back in, and had a hell of a time getting the rear engine mount bracket back on. In the process, I think I may have slightly punctured one of the heater hoses coming through the firewall (directly above the rear engine mount), or at least just didn't get the clamps all the way back on. I had tried to pull the hoses off to get them out of the way of the mount, but I couldn't.

So I noticed a slight coolant drip under the car from those hoses. No big deal, I can fix it in a few days.

But today driving to and from work I noticed this intermittent sucking/dribbling sound (temp slider set to cold w/ A/C on). I could smell coolant inside the car and found the passenger side carpet fairly soaked with coolant.

I'm talking about these #9 and #11 hoses, where they connect to #12, which they call a grommet:



Are those hoses not connected to metal pipes? If the coolant is leaking down to the ground because I didn't get the hose clamps all the way back on, why would it also be leaking inside the car??

Please help, because I can't keep driving it like this.

 

Upon further inspection, it appears that those #9 and #11 hoses attach directly to 2 pipes coming from the heater core thru the firewall, #3 in this pic:



Is it possible that if I didn't get the hose clamps on all the way, that the leaking coolant could somehow spray through the firewall around those pipes and leak down under the dashboard?

 

You are correct, those two outlets you are talking about are for the heater core, if you puncutured or crushed the brass tubes it is possible that is causing your leak, take the hoses back off, make sure they arent crushed, or punctured then put it back together and clamp her down,if that dont work next guess would be replace the heater corel. good luck

 

Well I couldn't ever get the hoses to come off, so I guess I'll just try to get the clamps back on there all the way.

 

Well I pulled the #11 hose off and found out that I damaged that pipe coming through the firewall, and so there is not a complete seal when the hose is attached.

So I'm guessing my only option is to replace the heater unit, which I found plenty on eBay for only around $30 or so. I'm not looking forward to removing the dashboard, though (did it once before, total PITA).

Can I replace the heater unit without having to discharge the A/C?

Also, I'm thinking I'll just bypass the heater entirely until I can do all this, by running the #7 hose above to both connections on the engine, so that no coolant passes through the firewall. Anything wrong with doing that?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by PatrickGSR94 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well I pulled the #11 hose off and found out that I damaged that pipe coming through the firewall, and so there is not a complete seal when the hose is attached.

So I'm guessing my only option is to replace the heater unit, which I found plenty on eBay for only around $30 or so. I'm not looking forward to removing the dashboard, though (did it once before, total PITA).

Can I replace the heater unit without having to discharge the A/C?

Also, I'm thinking I'll just bypass the heater entirely until I can do all this, by running the #7 hose above to both connections on the engine, so that no coolant passes through the firewall. Anything wrong with doing that?</TD></TR></TABLE>


You have to discharge the ac to replace the heater core, you have to disconnect the ac lines under the battery to get the heater box/evaporator out of the car to replace the heater core. nothing wrong with bypassing the heat in my book, just fix before winter