So today I had to have the s70 towed, i was accelerating onto the interstate when I heard a loud "psssttpptwhoosh" from somewhere midway down the car... I pull over and there was coolant gushing and i mean gushing from the frame rails on both sides. There was no coolant drippage or sign of it under the hood, but everything past the passenger door under the car was dripping with coolant.

I am figuring it is the heater core, as there is coolant under the mat on the passenger side, and there was a sweet smell for a few days prior to the loss of coolant. I am very taken back because I am thinking that if it was the heater core then all the coolant would be in the car, not all over the road. If it is the heater core then where the hell is the coolant getting outside the cabin?


If I fill up the car it pours out in 50 seconds or less.... Pretty massive leak.

I am going to jack the car up tomorrow and look around under there, I am wondering if there is anthing else that could be leaking coolant near the middle of the car....

Im just confused.. The other thing was the transmission was in "S" mode (i usually use E mode) and I was WOT when it happened.. Just thought I would give all the details.

Thanks for the help, i have searched and just want verification.

 

Usually the heater core will just leak inside the car. But if it was gushing out really fast it might be leaking to the A/C drain and getting out there. The drain it like right above the cat converter.

I would climb under the car and see exactly where it is coming from.

 

Hey Tech, are there any coolant lines heading to the back of the car at all?

Thanks for the quick response.

 

No none at all. There is the heater lines going into the firewall by the back of the motor and there is coolant lines on the turbo if it is a turbo car. But nothing to the back of the car.

 

Ok Well it was the heater core, or the lines going into it.. I bypassed the heatercore using a small length of hose I had in the garage BUT when I pressed the two yellow tabs and pulled the hose on the lowermost connection a large chunk of the black connector that it snaps into came out with it... Wondering if the hose heading to the heatrcore (inside the cabin) blew not the heater core itself......

can you buy just the black connector for the hose? or am I going to have to buy the hoses that go from the firewall to the heater core now?

 

This is what you need. It is kind of a pain to replace but can be done.
It most likely was leaking from the coupler.
http://www.fcpgroton.com/product-exe...category_id/66

 

I basically would need to pull the heater core anyways to replace this part inside the cabin right? should I just go ahead and do the heater core at the same time regardless?

 

Might not be a bad idea overall. But you really only need to remove the pipes from the heater core and not remove it from the car.

 

Well if your heater core is leaking, then replace at the same time as the firewall coupler. Agree with tech, pain in the a** but has been done many of times.

 

I had big problems with the heater hose coupling on my 98 S70 T5. I changed out the o-rings multiple times but could not get my leak to stop at the firewall. The plastic coupling looked like it was going to be a big pain to change out, so I decided to do a modification instead so I wouldn't have to worry about future leaks. I took out the plastic coupling, cut the ends of the coolant tubes that run from the heater core to the inside firewall with a recipricating saw, slipped on two pieces of 5/8 heater hose that I bought from autozone and put hose clamps on. I slipped the other ends of hose over the metal elbows on the engine size hoses. Afterwords, no more leaks. I plan on using some of that yellow spray that they use to fill in spaces in house walls to fill in the space in the firewall where the coupling used to be. I have attached some photos.