heater core leak (1 Viewer)

[derekmjones]

Hello Everyone,

I was having an awful amount of what I thought was condensation fog up my windows; I thought it was a plugged drain at first but I eventually noticed the sticky residue / sickly sweet smell of coolant. Turns out my heater tee hose clamps failed, so flushed the coolant, fixed the clamps, hoses all good. No more visible leaks but still had condensation fog coming from somewhere; I can't get to the heater core without tearing apart the car so I gave this Kseal a shot. I know it's probably not a long term solution but it seems to be working for the time being no more coolant fog / condensation coming through. I found a similar situation in the 80s forum but hadn't found anything here so I thought I'd share YMMV.

Solv-Tec K-Seal Coolant Leak Repair

Coming from Land Rovers, where head gasket problems are even more prevalent than on the 1FZ, some reputable people have backed this product. It seems to be more premium than your average box store head gasket fix. It seems people have been running it primarily as a preventative measure rather...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[derekmjones]

Update-

After driving the truck for about 30min multiple times over the past days and cranking the heater to max as long as possible the kseal seems to have worked its way through the system. Lots of flakes of I guess dried or bonded pink coolant blew out into the passenger and driver floor boards and I’ve been vacuuming it out after every drive and then topping off the coolant tank with water. Flakes have stopped now and coolant level remains at at full.

 

[toyuda]

That is great.

Please keep the forum updated on the longevity of the fix.

Just curious, where were you seeing the residue you mentioned in your first post?

 

[derekmjones]

Will do. The “fog” i noticed would come out of the dash vents and fog up the windshield and front windows when the car was heating up or driving around. It continued after fixing the heater tee so I didn’t think it was related. I vacuumed out the cabin air filter box and blower motor and blew compressed air into the ac drop line in case it was clogged. No effect. So I figured maybe coolant was still leaking somewhere else. Yep fluid dropped from max about 1/3 since I just filled it and decided to try the kseal stuff after reading it on the 80s forum. Once that was done following the directions that’s when I saw it start coming out of the heater vents as flakes. I assume it was leaking out through them the whole time but my floor mats are black and I couldn’t tell before when it was liquid.

Phew that was long winded. If you want to look in yours, turn on your heater and get a flashlight and shine it up into the heater ducts and you’ll be able to see if there is anything leaking into it.

 

[vcrusher]

Just Had the same issue, heater core leaking, T connectors leaking, sealants are a temporary fix and I would only using for emergency use. Stuck in the middle of nowhere emergency situation. If it stops your leak what else is it sealing. Just my thought on sealants. I had my heater core and T replace. Good luck keep us posted.

 

[Junkyarddog982]

Just Had the same issue, heater core leaking, T connectors leaking, sealants are a temporary fix and I would only using for emergency use. Stuck in the middle of nowhere emergency situation. If it stops your leak what else is it sealing. Just my thought on sealants. I had my heater core and T replace. Good luck keep us posted.

How much was it?

 

[dealmaker]

Update-

After driving the truck for about 30min multiple times over the past days and cranking the heater to max as long as possible the kseal seems to have worked its way through the system. Lots of flakes of I guess dried or bonded pink coolant blew out into the passenger and driver floor boards and I’ve been vacuuming it out after every drive and then topping off the coolant tank with water. Flakes have stopped now and coolant level remains at at full.

Should be topping off with the correct Toyota coolant only. If, and only if, you have no other choice than water, make sure it's distilled and not "tap".

Also, if you have not already, be sure to search for threads regarding burping your system. If your heater core(s) have been leaking and you're needing to top up the radiator, it's likely you have some air trapped in your system. Posts 4, 5, and 9 here have good info on getting air out... Does rear heater get as hot as front heater? - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/does-rear-heater-get-as-hot-as-front-heater.1312810/#post-14972841

 

[excessive]

keep a close eye on your temp gague, the radiator stop leak products have a habit of plugging radiators as well.