Heater core noise

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nick62087

Registered User
So when i drive the car, and its quiet inside and out, i hear this noise that sounds like flowing water. After some thought, i think that it may be an air bubble in the heater core. I cant think of anything else that it could be.

Is that even possible... air in the heater core making noise?

If so, would it be an easy thing to fix?

Im trying to get out of the habbit of turning up the stereo to prevent myself from hearing any noises that the car makes. It may be a great temporary fix, but id really rather repair whats wrong.

Thanks!
Nick
 
its not a bubble its a steam leak... maybe ur heatercore is backed up and pressurizing.... dont be surprised if u open ur car and ur swimming in coolant... bypass it to prevent any further damage....
 
Hmm... maybe i should bypass it. It wouldnt surprise me if it is clogged and pressurizing. I drained the coolant yeterday and it was disgusting. It was brown and chunky. I took some pics, hopefully ill get the motivation to get them off the camera sometime today

-Nick
 
Heres some pics of the coolant. The full 5gal bucket is from draining, filling with prestone cooling system flush+water, running, and draining, and then filling with water, running, and draining.

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I didnt get a chance to take a pic of what was in the resivoir, i got frustrated and just wanted to get finished. I wanted to drain it, so i pulled the little hose off the radiator and pulled it down below the intercooler. Since they havent changed the laws of gravity in awhile, i assumed that with the cap on the resivoir open, it should flow out the hose. Wrong.

I ended up taking out the plastic resivoir to find a light gray, somewhat flaky solid in the bottom. The hose was also clogged with the solid. Im thinking it may be headgasket particles. Since the car runs nicely and doesn't smoke or anything, im guessing the headgaskets may have been replaced? Im not sure.

-Nick
 
Im glad you brought this up. Mine just went out last saturday evening. Im planning on replacing it this week. I have replaced a heater core before, and its not fun.
 
nick62087 said:
I ended up taking out the plastic resivoir to find a light gray, somewhat flaky solid in the bottom. The hose was also clogged with the solid. Im thinking it may be headgasket particles. Since the car runs nicely and doesn't smoke or anything, im guessing the headgaskets may have been replaced? Im not sure.

-Nick
Click to expand...

Okay,I have dealt with this recently......
The light gray stuff is definitely Radiator Stop-Leak.
That's Real Bad News my friend....
The previous owner used it b/c there was a leak somewhere for sure(obviously) but that stuff ruins heater cores and small passages if used improperly ie. too much of it.
You may have a blown HG, like Darrian says..... the stop leak may have fixed it, but I would start thinking about having your compression checked if your coolant turns brown after you are done.

good luck!
paul
 
Sorry To Say This But I Had This Too And My Head Gaskets Were Blown. If You Drained The Cooling System And You Hear The Heater Core Noise Thats Normal. If It Doesnt Go Away In A Day Or So Thats Bad! Have You Burped The Cooling System? Does The Coolant Overflow Tank Smell Like Exhaust Or Have Bubbles Or Foam In It? Compression Check? CAN YOU SMEEL ANTIFREEZE FROM THE AC/HEATER VENTS? IT ANTIFREEZE COMING OUT THE HOLE THAT WATER NORMALY COMES OUT OF WHEN YOU ARE RUNNING THE A/C?
 
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Well. This is what i had got done after 1 hour working on getting the dash out and away so i could reach the heater core.

Tomorrow ill start on replacing the heater core and putting everything back together.

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is that coolant i see in there? and all i have to say is d*** looks like a MESS OF WIRES but if ya know what your doin its not bad,.....keep us posted -Tony-
 
I had to do this on my 89 TA GTA turbo 3.8 Yes the Grand National motored TA. It took a whole Saturday to install a 12 dollar part.
The dash on those was held in with................Velcro.

That car would fly, I sold it with less trhan 88k on the odometer with a few mods I was running mid 12s
 
I think ive officially decided that i will never in my life change the heater core in my SC. The extent of dash removal i do is the black trim on the front, and thats to install a headunit.

The overflow tank does not smell, and i didn't see any bubbles. I cant figure out why the car runs good, but the coolant looked the way it did. The only smoke i see is from the tires at WOT.

I'm going to talk to my cuz about a compression test this weekend. Is that where you take out the spark plugs and put some kind of gauge in the hole? If so, i need new plugs anyway, so id kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

How do i 'burp' the cooling system? I assume that means to bleed out the air somehow, im not sure.

Thanks
-Nick
 
nick62087 said:
I think ive officially decided that i will never in my life change the heater core in my SC. The extent of dash removal i do is the black trim on the front, and thats to install a headunit.

The overflow tank does not smell, and i didn't see any bubbles. I cant figure out why the car runs good, but the coolant looked the way it did. The only smoke i see is from the tires at WOT.

I'm going to talk to my cuz about a compression test this weekend. Is that where you take out the spark plugs and put some kind of gauge in the hole? If so, i need new plugs anyway, so id kill 2 birds with 1 stone.

How do i 'burp' the cooling system? I assume that means to bleed out the air somehow, im not sure.

Thanks
-Nick
Click to expand...
right next to the single wire gauge sending unit to the right of the supercharger as you are looking at the engine is a tall thing that has A bolt on the top, that is used to bleed air out of the cooling system
 
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