If your car’s floorboards are wet, especially on the passenger side, your heater core could be leaking. This auto part is located underneath the dashboard on the passenger side of your automobile. It has a series of tubes inside of it through which hot engine coolant flows. When you turn on your automobile’s heater, the air blows over the hot coolant in the tubes so that it is nice and toasty when it blows through the vents. This is just one sign or core trouble. ER Auto Care lists the other signs below.
Cold Air
One definite indicator that you have a core problem is that you will have cold air blowing through your vents even though you’ve turned on your car, truck, or utility vehicle’s heater. Even if the air is lukewarm but not hot, this can be an indicator that you have a clogged or leaking heater core. You shouldn’t have cold air blowing through the vents with the heater on.
Overheated Engine
Oddly, you may end up with cold air blowing through the vents yet a hot engine. This suggests that the heater core is preventing the engine coolant from making its way back to the radiator due to a clog. It also suggests that the core has reduced the coolant levels because the coolant is leaking all over your floorboards. Either condition will overheat your engine.
Foggy Windows
If your windows keep fogging up and you smell a musty odor that is sweet like maple syrup, the heater core is definitely leaking engine coolant. The odor that you smell is the engine coolant. Coolant smells sweet. When you combine this odor with the fogging going on inside of your vehicle’s interior, this is a sure sign that the core is experiencing problems and needs to be replaced.
Low Coolant
Finally, if the heater core is leaking, your engine will constantly be low in coolant. This can cause the engine to overheat as discussed above, and it can also get pretty frustrating. No matter how much coolant you add to the radiator, the levels will be reduced by the leak constantly. It’s important to get this leak fixed as soon as possible to prevent your engine from overheating too often.
We can do that for you here at ER Auto Care in Columbus, OH, or ER Auto Care in Plain City, OH. Yep! We have two auto service shops to help you keep your automobile safe, efficient, and running like new.
