Hello,

So the other day I went out to my truck and I noticed there was a small puddle of anti freeze on the ground. I popped the hood and watched the area just below the radiator where the puddle was. Sure enough I have a slow drip happening. It looks as if it is coming from the water pump but I am not certain. The truck has also just taken to not blowing hot air with the heat all the way up. I let the truck warm up (it gets to 180ish). Cold air. If I really get on the truck it will blow warmer, but once I slow down or stop it goes right back to cold.

I was going to flush the heater core. I watched some videos on YT and it "seems" pretty easy. However, just now I watched something where they claim the heater core is in the dash and that the entire dash needs to be removed to get at it. Is this correct? I sure hope not.

As much as I love this truck, it has honestly been a nightmare since I got it. I bought it off a "friend" for $1500 and it had 107k on it. Great condition inside and out (minus a tiny bit of front end damage). Long story short... in the 2 months I've had it I've already dumped over $2600 in repairs. So I'm REALLY trying to avoid ANOTHER costly repair. I know my issue could be the water pump, heater core, etc. I don't know the condition of the thermostat. It could be leaking from there. I figured if the heater core flush was easy enough I would try that first. Obviously I need the heat as I live in the north east (Long Island, NY) and it is already going down into the 20s at night.

Thanks for any advice.

Derek

 

UPDATE

When the heater is on setting 1 or 2 it does seem hot. Not super hot but hot enough. Once I move it to 3 or 4 is gets cold. Also, when I set the temp to cold it blows a lot harder than when it is set to hot. I hope it isn't the bellows (or whatever they are called). I really don't want to have to take the whole dash apart.

 

If you're not getting heat you've either got lack of water flow through the heater core (either clogged or air trapped in it) or you have an issue in the hvac box. You can flush the core from outside. The hoses to it go through the firewall on the drivers side. And yes the heater core is in the dash just like pretty much every other car.

 

I just did the heater core flush about an hour ago. Water came out crystal clear. No brown, no rust color, no gunk. I guess I'll have to look for a guide to check the bellows.

 

Bellows? You've got vacuum actuators for the vent diverter doors and a cable for the blend door.

 

Correct. That is the case for almost all cars. Are you sure it's not your radiator leaking and clogging up? Have you tried running radiator flush through it? The flush also circulates through the heater core.

 

If there was a huge puddle of coolant under the truck, then how much is in the system still? Do you have enough to ensure that it’s even cycling through the heater core? It sounds like your blend door works. The airflow is supposed to drop when on heat. When set to heat, air goes through both the heater core and the A/C evaporator. When set on cold, it only goes through the evaporator. So you basically get twice the restriction on heat than when you do on cold. It sounds like coolants not flowing through your heater core. If you can determine that the water pump is the culprit, they’re not hard to replace on these. The hardest part is removing the fan

 

When you are low on coolant, the heater is the first thing to stop working.

 

It wasn't a huge puddle. For some reason, even though when I flushed the heater core it came out clear, the heat is now working. Maybe there was an initial clog that blew out just when I turned the hose on or something. And the leak seems to have stopped. I did put in a bottle of K-Seal. Maybe it stopped the leak but clogged up the heater core? At least its working now.

 

That would do it.