BubbaJ

Hiya all, I have a little prob, well actually kinda major, but anyways... 1 morning i noticed a little puddle of green water on pass side frnt mat, and engine with bad miss and a flickering check engine light. Further inspection reveals bubbles in rad. Problem? must be a leaky heater core. Temparary solution - disconnect heater hoses from firewall in engine bay and run together. (hey im a student, no money right? :-)) Anyway, thats all fine and good until I want to use the heater, as winter is fast approaching in my litlle corner of the world. I spent 2 hrs on the weekend pulling my dash apart to try and find the heater core itself, the actual heat exchange unit, and all that that little exercise got me was 2 cuts on my hands and no joy.
Has anyone else come across this problem, or failing that, has anybody located the damn thing whilst looking for something else under the dash? I have areally bad feeling that i have to remove the whole dashboard entirely, as i have removed passenger kickpanel, glovebox, radio, climate controller, center console facade, handbrake and gearlever surrounds. And I still only have a vague idea of which little black box its in... Dont want to risk pulling a/c unit apart by m,istake and depressurising it.
My poor little max looks like someone threw a grenade in it, im freezin my *** off, and the local Nissan dealer scratched their heads and said "We've NEVER had one of those before, we'll have to pull it all apart and see how to fix it... Leave us ur VISA card and we'll get back to u...."
Little help, please?
Or another thought just occured to me... does anyone know if the exchange unti is metal or plastic pipes? If its metal, i could try some of that stop-leak stuff that u put in ur rads for holes....

brubenstein

Stop Leak:
Your heater core rotted out due to corrosion, because the system wasn't properly maintained. There is all kinds of crud in the system now, and the radiator can probably just barely manage to keep the engine temp down where it's supposed to be. Putting in one of those radiator stop leak products could easily clog the system up to the point that the engine starts overheating.
Find a place that knows where the heater core is (a radiator shop would be your best bet). Be prepared for what they tell you: The radiator has to be boiled out and the hoses and thermostat have to be changed, in addition to the heater core. Better start thinking about how much heat is worth to you.

flyry110

you know, summer is fast approaching. if you don't have the money, you can bypass your heatercore. just connect the two hoses untill you have enough money for a new heater core. you won't have heat though.

Jeff92se

iTrader: (82)

I've done this before so let me fill you in. First of all, it's your heater core that's leaking. Call courtesy Nissan to get the best price. I wouldn't skimp on this one becuase it's VERY,VERY time consuming to get this bugger out. You must remove THE ENTIRE DASH. I mean the entire dash. That includes that thick metal cross-brace and the steering wheel support. That's the ONLY way to get at the black box right behind the center console. The heator core is in there. The good news it that I didn't have to disconnect any of the AC lines to remove the heator core.

flyry110

yeah, if you're gonna do the work, you might as well do it right.

Jeff92se

iTrader: (82)

Oh and the part is only about $130 or so?? I forget. I friend of mine asked a dealer how much it would cost and it came to about $1000! It goes to show how labor intensive it is. It's not hard work but there is massive amounts of screws and such to keep track of. It's not hard but I would start on a friday and don't count on driving until maybe Sunday night or so. Maybe faster if your pretty quick about things.

BubbaJ

Umm not quite the case my man...... Did my thermostat 2000km ago, always change my coolant every 20000 km, and even when i bought the car, water was clean and green. But thanks anyway.

brubenstein

If the cooling system is in good shape, then it may just be a loose hose clamp, or fitting, that's leaking. The problem is that you still have to take the dash apart to get to it.