Coolant leak - heater hoses
 

Hi all

I've recently bought an old 1994 850 and in the few weeks since buying it a few problems have cropped up. The most pressing though is a serious coolant leak has started to occur. From what I can tell, there is some leakage coming from out the top of the coolant overflow tank (the lid is a little cracked) but I have also noticed another leak coming from where the heater hoses feed into the heater core. I don't think it is the hoses themselves, it seems more to be the connection point - I've attached a photo to illustrate where its coming from. You can see the coolant residue around it.
Anyone got any advice for how to diagnose exactly where it's coming from? Also I may be able to take it to a mechanic during the week, but I may need a quick fix until then so I'm not hemorrhaging coolant every time I need to go somewhere. Could I just smother it in duct tape until I can get someone to do something about it? Or is this a problem I can fix easily enough myself?

the hoses have o rings going into the heater core. you can replace the hoses and the heater core (they tend to leak). I have a heater core (new) with o rings for 850s posted on the classifieds if interested.

And that plastic is 23 years old! Be careful. If you break anything there, you can still get new parts, but it'll be more work of course.