[V6-12v] The smell of curry soup (blown heater core)

[Tom Christiansen]

Clive,

Thank you for your offer on pictures. I recall you sent those out last
year when you did the job. Looked rather freakish to be honest...

For the two heater core hoses:
Getting them off at the connections to the heater core by the firewall
is pretty painless. The square tubing that connects the two strut
towers (what is this for anyway?!?) is in the way as usual, but no
biggie.
The ends you're having trouble with are probably the lower ones that
go into the engine coolant pipes. Those were indeed a royal pain in
the a**. There's one that goes straight forward into a pipe. That one
is not that hard to remove. It takes some tugging, grunting, and
twisting but it will come off. The troublesome hose is the one that
has the U turn in it near the end. For that one, I found a way from
below to cut a slit in it that would allow the hose to slip off the
pipe/hose fitting.


Thanks,

Tom

On 4/28/06, Clive Young <cyoung1661 at rogers.com> wrote:
> Tom
>
> Incidentally I am replacing the two hoses to the heater core .. WHAT A
> FREAKIN NIGHTMARE.. I have the 2 clamps off from underneath which took about
> 2 hours and the hoses just won't budge, can't get any leverage either, did
> you get yours off from the top or underneath ? I don't think it will fix my
> problem but there is no going back now !!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: v6-12v-bounces at audifans.com [mailto:v6-12v-bounces at audifans.com] On
> Behalf Of Tom Christiansen
> Sent: Thursday, April 27, 2006 9:58 PM
> To: v6-12v at audifans.com
> Subject: [V6-12v] The smell of curry soup (blown heater core)
>
> Folks,
>
> My 1994 90S has started to consume coolant and I have noticed the
> smell of curry soup in the car lately. Now, I don't really mind curry
> soup, but the smell of it -- especially when it comes from the vents
> is indicative of a blown heater core. Damn!!
>
> I understand that changing the heater core involves tearing the entire
> dash apart. Thus, I'd prefer to have a 3-day weekend available for
> this. Conveniently Memorial day is only a month away. But I'm not sure
> the core will last that long...
>
> Are the stop leak products safe to use on Audi engines with the red coolant?
>
> Is there a "back road" to the heater core that allows it to be changed
> without having to tear the dash apart?
>
> If I were to "bridge" the two hoses by the firewall, would the use of
> copper or brass pipe corrode the aluminum block through galvanic
> action?
>
>
> Now that I'm "in there anyway" what else would you suggest I change or
> inspect? A/C evaporator? (The A/C still works)
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Tom
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