On my '91 Accord I thought I had a bad heater core - windshield fogging up too much, oily residue on it. But I also noticed a small puddle inder the firewall on the driveway where the heater hoses meet the firewall. I had replaced these hoses about a couple thousand miles ago so I figured I might have disturbed the 20 year old core enough to maybe cause a leak. I was about to start taking out the dash today when I noticed there's no coolant in the little plastic pan under the core. The only coolant I see inside the car is just at the point where the core tubes go throught the firewall. The tubes kind of rise up from below the core so I would think if the core had a leak I would see coolant at the bottom coming from that plastic pan or cover on the bottom of the heater assy. So it seems more like it's coming from the hose connection on the core tube and running into the firewall. What do you guys think? What do you usually see when it's a core leak? I have a bad knee and don't want to take the whole dash out if it's just a clamp. For now I'm just going to pull the hoses, clean any debris off the tubes that might have been left behind by the old hoses which were a bitch to get off, and then reclamp it. I just want to know what you guys usually see when it is a bad core.

Thanks for any input.

 

Every core failure I've ever heard of involves coolant leaking out of it. But I guess it could be clogged or crimped somewhere...

 

NVM. When I got the hoses off, I noticed one of the core tubes was no round anymore so it probably wasn't sealing completely. Probably from me wrestling with it trying to get off the original hoses. I repositioned the clamp and will be keeping an eye on it. The leak I had was minimal which fits with this hose not sealing right.