CAR REPAIR RANT
I'm trying to fix a coolant leak on my daughters car. This engine is so crammed in that its impossible to see much of anything from the top. Water pump looks fine and dry all around it. I was looking under the car to see where it was dripping from. It was coming from the firewall area and there was heavy condensation and coolant smell from inside the car. Uh oh, looks like heater core. So I dig in and start tearing apart the bottom side of the dash. I'm in there for hours and I'm only about 4 screws and a couple water lines away from having the heater core loose. But I'm finding it odd that nothing is wet in there. So I decide to stop and check everything again. Come to find out that the water was running down a strut tower, across a little trough on the firewall and falling off when it hit the hole for the heater core lines. That accounted for the smell and condensation in the car and having a dry heater core. So now I'm really mad for having done all that work. I follow the water back as best I can and the only place water is leaking from is the reservoir tank cap. This is the only coolant cap this car has and it is a pressure cap so I assume that the cap is bad. Get a new cap and put it on. Warm the car up again and coolant is still gushing from around this cap. Now I can only assume that the system is over-pressurizing due to a clog somewhere. Now I gotta figure out how to hook up a hose to attempt to flush this thing out when its only 15 degrees outside. If I'm able to accomplish that, I still have several hours of reassembly to do from all that crap I took off the car to get to the heater core. My back did quit hurting though because it kinda went numb. I think I punctured my spleen on something trying to fit myself under that dash. I am not a happy man.
I'm trying to fix a coolant leak on my daughters car. This engine is so crammed in that its impossible to see much of anything from the top. Water pump looks fine and dry all around it. I was looking under the car to see where it was dripping from. It was coming from the firewall area and there was heavy condensation and coolant smell from inside the car. Uh oh, looks like heater core. So I dig in and start tearing apart the bottom side of the dash. I'm in there for hours and I'm only about 4 screws and a couple water lines away from having the heater core loose. But I'm finding it odd that nothing is wet in there. So I decide to stop and check everything again. Come to find out that the water was running down a strut tower, across a little trough on the firewall and falling off when it hit the hole for the heater core lines. That accounted for the smell and condensation in the car and having a dry heater core. So now I'm really mad for having done all that work. I follow the water back as best I can and the only place water is leaking from is the reservoir tank cap. This is the only coolant cap this car has and it is a pressure cap so I assume that the cap is bad. Get a new cap and put it on. Warm the car up again and coolant is still gushing from around this cap. Now I can only assume that the system is over-pressurizing due to a clog somewhere. Now I gotta figure out how to hook up a hose to attempt to flush this thing out when its only 15 degrees outside. If I'm able to accomplish that, I still have several hours of reassembly to do from all that crap I took off the car to get to the heater core. My back did quit hurting though because it kinda went numb. I think I punctured my spleen on something trying to fit myself under that dash. I am not a happy man.
