All of us are usually in and out throughout the day. Don't worry however, there are always knowledgeable people able to help out. If it is the heater core, now that I've been told it is the same place, check the floor and see if its wet. If the floor doesn't smell like coolant and isn't wet, good news, not the heater core.

Sucks doesn't it?

 

well he checked out the floorboard today and there was a little like 4" x 8" area on the passenger floorboard-he thinks thats from a gatorade that might have been leaking. but he also said it was not in the place where it should be for the heater core leak?

he said it did not smell like coolant to him. but...he did say his windshield was fogging up before but he is going to retest it again tomorrow with the heat on to see about the fogging again to double check.

you do mean fogging with the heater on right? hes watching the vikes/saints game now, a die hard viking fan so i am not going to ask him eeekkk...oh wait they scored but still not going in the lions den. he knows what to do but i was wondering above about the heater.
thanks again for the thumbs up and the help!

 

Sorry about the loss, im in mn right now and i really wanted the vikings to win. I honestly thought i was going to get my *** kicked by my wife tonight cause shes HARDCORE vikings fan and when the saints got within field goal range i said it was over and she pretty much wanted to kill me.

But to answer your question, it should be fogging up regardless, and i dont mean the normal fogging from cold temp meeting hot temp i mean, like wet to the touch fogging up.

 

when the heater core has a leak it won't always get the floor wet, mine didn't.
the evap case (the heater cores home) can hold a good bit of coolant.

when it is leaking you will see the windshield fog up as soon as you turn on the defrost, and it will be like a greasy fog, not just wet like when you breathe on it.

i also noticed with mine that when you turn on the heat for the first time after starting it, then put it on face, you will see a little puff of steam come out and smell the coolant pretty strong.

if the windshield doesn't fog up when he kicks on the defrost then tell him to look at the heater hoses on the firewall to see if they're leaking. they have that crap squeeze style clamps on them and if it were leaking there then you could smell it in the cab. the air intake for the vents is in the cowl right above the heater hoses that are connected to the heater core.

as far as price goes, look here http://www.rockauto.com/

 

well per all y'alls help he has determined, fogging-steam-smell-but no leaking-it is definitely the heater core and since a heavy workweek has been having to drive home, at least an hours worth ++, and wiping the windshield all the way. whew what a week for him. he works a very physical job so super tired and frustrated when he gets home.

so he went and bought the heater core tonight and is going to install tomorrow.

now what his question is-1998 ram 1500 5.9L, 8cyl-quad cab-what does he have to remove on this model to get to the heater core? glove box, hopefully not the whole dash(!)?

a link to the mechanics manual-he has a book but the darn thing tells you what to do with the heater core but not what to take off to do it. not like it used to be. as i said above he has removed one in a dodge van but that is different.

anyway, i reminded him that you guys were the only ones that helped him before so here we are again.

if you are giving your own personal experience/recommendations, please be very very specific as possible.

so again thanks!

 

oh forgot to ask as i saw this in another thread about flushing out the heater core and our son in law recommended the same thing. but how do you do that without going to a mechanic? and does this always work?
husband says might as well replace as flushing might not work anyway.
please read my post above too as i am pretty sure the replacing thing is gonna happen. thanks

 

anyone?

 

If your gonna replace the heater core, you need to remove the dash...all of it. You can tilt it forward and that will give you enough room to navigate in. I would try to back flush the heater core first though. If you want to back flush it, attach to hose's to the heater core and heater core only. fill it threw those hose's with some prestone super flush or CLR. Let it sit in there so it can soak up all the crap in there. then attach the outlet hose of the heater core to a garden hose and flush. The point of that being is to get water to flow in the reverse direction to effectively remove any gunk trapped in there. However, if you already suspect you have a leak in you cab via the heater core, don't be surprised if there's a bigger leak after you flush it. Best of luck!!! Come back if you need any info. BTW there are tons of threads about changing the heater core as well as back flushing them. You just need to type it in the search bar.

 

found this thread here and think it is how to do it with only partial dash removal? please see it and and let me know if that is what it is showing?https://dodgeforum.com/forum/1st-gen...er-core-3.html

 

I'm not sure how similare the procedure is on the durango's compared to the ram's. here's a thread with some good pics.
https://dodgeforum.com/forum/2nd-gen...ater-core.html
give me a little time to search for a "how to". I remember seeing one here a while back.