Ok, not air lol. The T on the lower heater hose is leaking like crazy, lost 1/4 gallon of coolant in a few minutes. So, guess I'm replacing hoses.


From right under the fender at the firewall.

 

If it is just the tee and not the hoses that connect to the tee you can save some money by replacing just the upper hose going to the heater core. PCH501094

 

Thanks for the part #. Not 100% but it looks like it is leaking where the lower hose going to rear heat is connected to the tee. Finally Friday so I'll have time to look closer over the weekend. Those lower hoses going to rear heat look like a pain to get to and replace. Might just do the entire heater hose assembly and be done with it. Would that leak cause the overheat issue? Seems like I have more than just a leaky fitting since it is overheating when driving but not when idling.

 

I'd say if you are losing a 1/4 gallon of coolant over the course of a few minutes than that could very likely cause the overheat condition. Just based on the speed of the leak, its hard to say if something else is the issue. Losing that much coolant could certainly introduce an air pocket and in turn cause an overheat.

When you say overheat, did you pull over right when the temperature got higher or did you drive on it and lose power?

Also for the rear heater hoses if you do them, you'll need to remove the passenger fender liner, which is a pain. This will give you access to the pipe, but unless you are Houdini, I don't see how you'll be able to get the new pipe in with the engine in place and not bending the pipes. Only like 10% of the pipe is rubber hose, the rest is aluminum. Swapping the hoses was easier for me and solved my leak at the tee.

 

My wife first noticed the overheat and immediately pulled over, I had the LR towed to the house. The second time it overheated by the time I got out of my driveway after I had let it come up to temp and I immediately turned around. So it has not been running in an overheat condition for more than a few minutes at most. Agree that the leak could be bad enough that it is pulling air into the system.

Hmmm definitely sounds like a frustrating job, maybe all the hoses except lower and if I'm going to do that I'll just cut the hoses and bypass heater all together to confirm the leak is creating the air/overheat and get my wife back on the road. AB has all the hoses so I could get them replaced fairly quick. I used to do that on my truck as a kid when the heater core would fail, splice the 2 hoses and clamp it down to keep running. Not ideal but at this point the car has been sitting in the garage for over a week.

Again, appreciate the guidance. Most other forums I have been on in the past have all gone FB and not as helpful anymore, this site is awesome.

 

Ok, I wouldn't be too worried about a head gasket at the moment.

For the lower hoses, to disconnect it from the pipe is quite tricky. I was not able to get the hose clamp loose using a pair of 12" long needle nose pliers. What I ended up doing was using a pair of channel locks, gripped the lower hose clamp, and slowly rotated the hose so that the hose clamp was no longer facing the firewall and now faced the driver side wheel. This made it much easier to get the hose off and swap over the new one.

I think your plan sounds logical, but one thing I would do is when you take off the hoses going to the heater core, see if you can get coolant to flow in and out. My core was plugged completely and while doing a trans service in the garage the car began to overheat and I had to shut down mid way through the trans fill procedure (the fan got REAL loud). When I spoke with a tech he said it was odd for it to overheat in park after having the t-stat and water pump replaced and suggested I replace the core. Since then I haven't had any overheating issues and now have heat again.

While the wife may not like losing rear heat, the rear heater core is really just for the 3rd row. Though if you can tackle the heater core yourself, I don't think it's that much more difficult to change the lower hoses, just is a bit of monkeying in the engine bay.

I agree that FB is meh, most of the people do not post detailed write ups of how to do things so these forums are super valuable.

 

My first thought was head gasket, crossing my fingers it is not. Oil is clean and no coolant from the tail pipe.

I cursed quite a bit replacing the expansion tank with the positioning of the clamp on the lower hose. Used channel locks but what a pain, might buy those clamp pliers with the extension on it.

I can do the heater core, I've done 1/2 the job a couple times replacing blower motors. Does make me think that while I am there it would be good to replace it regardless, with my luck it will clog a week after I replace the hoses.

We live in South Texas so aside from a few anomaly days the last few years we don't see cold and never have anyone in the 3rd seat now that kids are grown. Rear a/c is much more important

I'll work on it and hopefully report back that all is fixed, thanks again!!

 

The clamp pliers are handy for sure. When I did it, I still had my wife actuate the clamp while I maneuvered the clamp and hose. Still easier than vice grips.

 

I ended up with a Dorman heater core bypass because the hoses crimped when I put a normal splice in, bled the air and everything is fine, no overheat condition so far. Will commute to work in it this week to confirm it will hold up in traffic. I'll flush the heater core while it is bypassed and replace the hoses later.

 

Nice! Sounds like you've been able to rule out a head gasket and be able to drive it. Best of luck on flushing it.