I took my car to the mechanic to replace a fuel injector that was stuck open and spewed fuel into a cylinder. They cleaned the engine, changed the oil a few times to get rid of the the gas contaminated oil, replaced the bad injector, and I asked them to replace all the injectors. They did and the car runs.

After getting it back a couple days I noticed that the car will run hotter sometimes when I'm stopped in traffic.
I turned the heat on to take some heat off the engine and noticed that the there was no heat only cold air w/ the ac and cool w/o the ac.
I looked under the hood an noticed that both heater core hose connectors our of the firewall was missing and one was partially broken.
I also noticed that they bypassed the heater core.

It seems to me that they broke the connector when trying to remove or reinsert the hoses as part of taking things apart or putting things back together for the original job.
It's upsetting because I've been going to this shop for years and no one mentioned that this happened.

Regarding the overheating, it's possible that they did not bleed the system properly after bypassing the heater core.

I realized now that this post is more of a story/rant than a hard question, anyhow.
Should I take it back to them and have them try to fix it for free or take it back to them to get some credit back for the original job and do the work to reintroduce the heater core myself?

Heater in and out lines from the engine block looped into each other.

Heater in and out connectors from the firewall missing hoses and upper connector broken.

 

If they broke it, they need to fix it.

How long have you owned this car?

 

Who is your mechanic? that is actually quite funny. But take it back get it fixed properly. they owe you a new heater core now.

 

Agreed, I'm gonna deal with them tomorrow morning.

I've had the car for almost 18 years.

 

I've been going to them for years for heavier work that I otherwise didn't have the tools or time for.
They've been honest and transparent every time. We'll see how they resolve this problem when I take it back tomorrow morning.

 

18 years? Cool. Who did the DEK engine?

 

Yep. Same garage like 3 years ago.

 

The car is probably overheating because there are air pockets in the engine and the shop didn't take the time to bleed the engine.

The plastic fittings on the heater core do get brittle with age and will break fairly easy.

The part is called Tube-Water and it is part number 92231-40U00 and includes an o-ring for where it attaches onto the heater core. The list price is $51.00 at the dealer. I don't know if an auto parts store has these, it might be a dealer only part. I would suggest getting both replaced.

 

Your story implies that the work was done recently. That bypass picture though, the work appears to have been done years ago.

 

Lots of fuel injector replacements for these cars recently! Had to replace all 6 of mine back in February and have no problems since...

 

does look fairly old in those pics, unless they cut up an old hose instead of putting new ones on, i'd be pretty pissed at that garage. went through an engine swap in my hyundai and christ did that ******^$%^%$^$ a$$wipe *** up that job.

 

Unrelated to your current predicament but how did you determine one of your injectors was broken?

 

Yeah, this is pretty blatant. First, you were going to figure this out, it's not clear why they didn't come clean and talk about options with regard to the Heater core once they encountered the problem. Even asking you to pay for it to start...Good luck.

 

So what happened? In regards to the overheating, I'm pretty sure that regardless of the HVAC setting, there is always water running through the heater core, so 2 things happen with the bypass, first, less cooling surface outside the motor. Core without air blowing over it may not cool much, but bottom line it was engineered as part of the cooling system. The other, is you've got less water in the system due to the reduced volume space for it. So again, car was designed to have more water and longer path for cooling. And in the age and buildup in the cooling system, overheating is inevitable.

 

It is true that water always circulates through the heater core in today's cars, but it does not mean that the heater core is acting like a small radiator. It will and does do this ONLY when you have the HVAC controls set to the heat mode and you are heating the passenger cabin. When you have the controls set for heat, outside air is directed through the heater core and into the cabin. When you are not using heat, such as in the summer, the outside air is bypassed around the heater core and the heater core does not do any cooling of the water. And summertime is when the engine needs all the cooling it can get, so obviously the heater core was not designed to be part of the cooling system.

The water that flows through the heater core hoses isn't going to do cooling of any consequence. The neoprene hoses are not a heat conducting material, so heat loss will be very small. Also consider that the heater core hoses are located between the engine and the firewall. They are not in a cold air environment. That air is basically the same temperature as the engine temperature, further reducing any heat loss from the heater core hoses.

Engine cooling is all based on having good water flow through the radiator. Maintaining the cooling system with periodic antifreeze changes will prevent buildup inside the cooling system that could contribute to overheating. If you don't do the maintenance, you will have problems. Do the maintenance and you won't have problems for a long, long time.

 

Your statement isn't true MadMax07SL, my heater nipples were broke for almost 2 yrs with it bypassed in TEXAS....Maybe it's was topped off or there really is another issue!