bad heater core?

[DieselMan]

Vehicle: ’99 Mitsubishi Eclipse 2.0L

I am a bit disappointed with the recent experience I had with a repair shop. I dropped my car off a month ago because it was overheating, not putting out heat from the ventilation system, and the coolant reservoir was not staying filled. The owner, who is also the service writer told me I needed a new head gasket. Ok, that was done and I picked my car up this passed Friday 12/14. Before I left I checked it out, watched the temp gauge and tried to blow the heat. It did not overheat but did not blow hot air. One of the mechanics called the owner, who was not there, and he said I need to replace the heater core. This is ridiculous!! I typed a list of all the problems and showed it to him and then he calls me to say it was fixed. Keep reading. On Saturday, I drove to my gym and at one point the temp gauge started increasing before. I popped the head and the reservoir was empty. I am thinking the head gasket was fine the whole time.

What should I do?

Is there anything other than the heater core that could not cause it to blow heat and lose coolant?

Topic

[Wayne]

The obvious springs to mind, a leak. Radiator itself, or somewhere along the line. If everything was working fine, then it started overheating and not putting out heat, that equates to the system not building pressure and/or air in the system. Were the leak from the heater core itself with that much coolant involved you should notice some significant coolant in the carpeting and the like. If nothing else you should notice it from that slightly sickly sweet smell inside the car were this the case with the blower running.

Could still very well have had a head-gasket leak (ie. exhaust gases making it into the coolant when tested), but the actual issue you were having recently was due to something else. So, I wouldn’t condemn them completely right away for that one. That said, further testing after fixing the head-gasket should have been done, and of course the from-the-dark guessing at a second high-cost job should keep you running away screaming in the future from that place.

First test I’d do would be pressure test. This tool to my knowledge can be rented from most auto parts stores. Eric gives a pretty thorough run-down of what’s needed in the below video:

[johnzcarz]

[quote=”DieselMan” post=42141]Vehicle: ’99 Mitsubishi Eclipse 2.0L….Is there anything other than the heater core that could not cause it to blow heat and lose coolant?[/quote]

Could be a lot of things, hopefully it’s something simple.

Is there a heater valve in the system that’s stuck closed not letting coolant into the heater core?
If it is a heater core, maybe you can just flush it rather than replace it.

Is it actually loosing coolant or was it not topped off fully and is just taking coolant from the overflow into the radiator?Any signs of coolant on the ground after you park it for a while?

[college man]

If the head gasket was just done. I would suggest you have
air in the system and needs to be bled. You could go back to
the shop and complain that the car still over heats and is not
fixed or we could help you here. First thing is to bleed the air
from the cooling system. before anything else.

[spelunkerd]

You’re facing a dilemma because they do owe you some explanation, even if it is just the most common problem of inadequate burping. On the other hand I also would be questioning the assumption that it was a head gasket, and I would wonder if they tested for exhaust gasses in the coolant system before replacing the head. A good cycle of burping and, if the problem continues, a pressure test of the system seems a logical plan. You might use the search function for a similar problem discussed here on the etcg forum. There was a recent thread here that discussed the same situation. Strangely, that was ultimately shown to be a collapsing coolant return hose, a really unusual situation.

[EricTheCarGuy]

To me it sounds like air in the cooling system. In fact I would argue that was the problem the whole time based on your description. That can’t be proved however.

I would recommend you bleed the system and recheck for the problem as suggested. Here is a video that might also help if you don’t get any results from bleeding the system.

[Author]

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