Interior Coolant Leak

[Van Diesel]

I noticed a puddle of coolant on my passenger side floor mat this morning. The leak appears to be coming from the vent. I imagine this is unhealthy for my van and me. Does anyone have any idea what I might be dealing with here and what is involved in a repair? Please enjoy images below.


Here's the passenger side with some coolant dripping down.





A nice puddle of coolant on the mat. You can see the drip coming from the air vent.





This is where the leak is coming from under the dash.

[Diver]

Heater matrix most likely unfortunately. Fair bit of dash removal to get to it if I remember correctly.

[FalcoColumbarius]

Heater matrix most likely unfortunately. Fair bit of dash removal to get to it if I remember correctly.

X2. Heat exchanger (or heater core). That would be my guess, as well. Maybe it's a bad connexion.

Falco.

[Van Diesel]

That was my guess too. Today I saw vapor coming out of the vent that blows on the windshield.

I was hoping that someone who knew more than me might have other ideas that were easier to fix.

Thanks for the help.

[thelazygreenfox]

As a temporary fix try removing your rad cap. The fluid may be leaking out under pressure. This will give you interior heat till you can fix the problem. Fill the coolant bottle back up to the marks and vent the plastic plug at the firewall as the engine is warming up.

Pulling the heater core is a pain in the touche. There's some guidance on this site which I used on a previous Deli. Remove your front seats before you start. The seats can slide back out of the way.

Take lots of pictures, mark all the bolts and where they came from.

Order a new heater core, don't try to fix the old one if the core had any blockage, ie: no heat.

Good luck
TLWF

[Big-Bird]

I performed this repair in 2013 on my heater core with the same issues you described.

The heater core sits inside a massive blower box assembly and is held in the box with a metal plate and 1 screw. Mine developed a pinhole where the plate had rubbed through the heater core. Some creative soldering to fix the leak and a rubber pad under the plate to prevent future problems.

The job took around 7 hours of actual work as the dash must be removed almost entirely. The lower parts, glovebox, radio, air bag, instrument cluster and a fair amount of the heater tubes all have to come out.

The dash itself can be loosened and lifted up....it does not need to be removed but many have done this to get more maneuverability. Not a fun job as there are plenty of areas of cut yourself and some spots are very tight for space.

I posted a few pics of my efforts on this forum.

http://www.delica.ca/forum/viewtopic.ph ... eater+core

[Van Diesel]

Thanks for the tips, guys.

That writeup looks great, Big Bird. Very detailed. What type of solder did you use? Plumbing?

[Big-Bird]

Yeah, heavy stuff for copper plumbing work. Used my mini blow torch to heat the area on the heater core and just spread the solder evenly with the flame.

Been over a year and no more leaks. Could not justify the cost of a new core when the leak was justa pin hole. If it was a crack that would have warranted a new core.

Seems my pics are no-longer on the server. I still have them so could PM a few to you.