03' stratus.. please help!! Heater core??
 

I was wondering if anyone could help me out. My car keeps overheating and I think maybe the heater core is done on it, but I have no idea. I fill it up with water before I drive but it overheats pretty quickly. The heater blows out only cold air. Also like a week ago the car was leaking water inside on the drivers side floor. Now it is leaking from under the car. Maybe someone could tell me what they think?? Should I stop driving it or just keep adding water??:p

i'm thinking water pump or bad hoses. when the waterpump starts to go (norm because of bad seals) it will start to leak at the weap hole (next to it's driveshaft). the water inside the car "could" be from the a/c as it is operating anytime you have the def on, this helps dry out the air and defog the windshield faster.

here is the way you check the t-stat. get the car to norm temp and feel the upper rad hose, if this hose is cold but the eng hot it might mean the t-stat is stuck closed. if the heater takes a long time to get warm and your temp guage stays in the "cold" range your t-stat is stuck open (norm failure mod of most modern cars).

this may sound dumb but, is the car really overheating or just loosing fluid? any steam, hot to the touch, or the guage says so? although it is rare to have a double fault (2 diff things wrong with the same system at the sametime happening at once), it can and does happen.

let us know.

No the car is overheating for sure, it gets really hot, the temp light comes on and the gauge is as high as it goes. I dont think the water on the inside floor board came from the a/c, I never run the a/c, def or heater because my car has always stalled out in idle when using them. I noticed my heater didnt work when my car was over heating. I tried putting the heater on high hoping to bring the temp down a little but after 20 minutes it was still blowing ice cold air. Im going to head out and check the t-stat like you said, thanks a lot for the advice. As long as i pull over when the temp light comes on and let it cool down you think it is okay to drive?

check your thermostat. If it's bad it will cause it to overheat and for there to be little or no heat.

sorry it took awhile to get back to you. you might have some air bubbles built up in your cooling system, but after reading your 2nd post, i'm thinking t-stat, GREAT fun to swap on mine.

my '02 takes FOREVER to get heat blowing (always has, 2.7 V6), when it does come on it feels like it's nuculer powered. this means the heater core circut is tied into the cooling circut (radiator part) and not the engine block circut, why i'm thinking your not getting any heat but your engine is overheating. no coolant getting to the rad.

i'd suggest to change the upper and lower rad hoses along with the t-stat. the upper hose isn't a big deal on the V-6, the lower is. hope this helps.

Yeah, I have to agree there.