bad Heater Core
 

A while ago I could smell a horrid stench coming from the glove box region and passenger side of my 90se. Upon closer inspection I notice the carpet wet around the passenger floormat. It was coolant, and smelled like death. The mechanic told me my heater is corroded and dead, which made sense because it would intermittently go cold at full blast. Anyway now it's getting frigid in San Diego(65-degrees!) and I need to get a new heater in there. I want to know if it's worth paying $190 for a new one from my mechanic or should I extract one from a junkyard Maxima. If anyone knows the compatibility of Max heaters with my 90se, that would be awesome. Thanks.

Don't cheap out on this. Just get a new one and have your mechanic put it in. Don't faint when he quotes the labor bill either.

If your heater core went, then the rest of the cooling system isn't in great shape either. Make sure they do a very through system flush when they do the heater core change. Coolant should be changed every 2 years.

radiator
 

yeah the rest of my cooling system showed failures shortly after the heater was disabled....There was a busted hose(replaced),bad/broken thermostat(replaced),small leak in water pump(soon),and a crack in the radiator(replaced). Now tomorrow I plan on looking into a new heater, new wires & Transmission cooler. We'll see.