97 Starlet heatercore?

[FST4RD]

Hey all... my sister inlaw is bringing around her 97 Starlet tomorrow for me to fix. The car is leaking coolant inside on the passanger side, she said that she turns the heater on she can see it coming out.
Is there any way to tell if it's the heater core that's had it or just a split pipe between the firewall and the heater core?

How hard is it to get the heatercore out of one of these cars?
I think for now I'm just going to loop the heater out in the engine bay...

[Garreth27]

Got to take whole dash out to replace heater core. Not the nicest job to do

[FST4RD]

Bugger. So might try replacing the hoses first then?
So what's the deal with heater cores? Do you recondition them, get a second hand one and risk it leaking again or get a new one?

[crispy'86]

Most radiator shops can repair them, either the core gets so badly corroded thay leak form there or one of the tanks split. Should be able to look up by the centre of dash area behind where stereo is located and see water marks or wet platic casing for the heater. Usually a good tell tale sign. doubt you'd have a cooling system pressure tester but if you do then that'd be a bonus.

[Bling]

Depends what's wrong with it I guess. could just be a case of rewelding / braising it if fixable.

[xsspeed]

Yeah depends where its fuxored.

You will likely find that the tubes are all in the engine bay and the copper stubs from the core poke through, so everything on the cabin side of the firewall in the circuit is the core itself.

Dash out job, and it's always a c-bomb of a job.

[FST4RD]

Well I looped off the heater in the engine bay, took the bung out the tank and drained it, ran water through it till it ran clear and then put some antifreeze back into it.
I said to her that the heatercore is going to be another day... I had some of the dash out and could see brown water coming out but couldn't see from where though. Guess I'll find out when I pull the core out

[Garreth27]

well least its summer so wont need the heater for the next few months so gives you plenty of time to do it haha