[s-cars] She's leaking pink juice!

[Fred Munro]

Nathan;

I can't think of any way that coolant can get into the cabin except via a
leaking heater core (well, there is a way but it's such an unlikely string
of failures that it's quite improbable). Coolant is going through the heater
core even with the AC on - the system maintains cabin temperature by
modulating air flaps in the box to mix hot and cold air. You'll have to pull
the heater box, take it apart, and replace the core. Might as well replace
the blower while you are at it if the blower is more than 3 years old. You
don't have to remove the dash. You'll probably have to remove the centre
console to disconnect the flap motors and rear seat heat vents. The box
comes out from under the hood. If you haven't done this job before you are
probably looking at 6-8 hours. To use a pollen filter you have to install
the evaporator box from a S6 - a big job that requires discharging the AC
system. It's hard to clean coolant out of the carpets and a sudden complete
failure of the core could spray your legs with 90C coolant, so unless your
into parboiling your flesh, driving with a leaking core is not a great idea.

HTH

Fred Munro
'94 S4
'97 S6 (bought it for the pollen filter :o)

-----Original Message-----
From: s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com
[mailto:s-car-list-bounces at audifans.com]On Behalf Of
nathan at license2sell.com
Sent: July 30, 2006 1:21 AM
To: s-car-list at audifans.com
Subject: [s-cars] She's leaking pink juice!


Low coolant light comes on.  I look at the passenger side rug & notice
pink coolant.  My '88 90Q did this & it was the "heater core."  I call my
mechanic & he told me it's a 99% chance that it's the "heater core".  Can
it be anything else?  How many hours is this?  Anything else I should fix
while the dash is off?  Can I add the pollen filter from the S6? How long
can I drive this way?  Why did the heater core blow if I was using A/C &
not the heater?

Nathan Belo
'92 S4 184K miles, CGR 6-spd, IA III+
Seattle

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