Heater Coil Issue

Deans21 · March 11, 2011

First time poster here. I figured it was about time I joined a community.

My problem is this..

A few days ago I noticed that the passenger side floor was pretty wet. It had just rained a ton that day and my window had been open a crack. I thought nothing of it. Then I was driving down the highway and noticed a bit of smoke (not a lot) from under the dash and I'm pretty sure I saw what looked like water coming from under the glovebox off to the left a little but I can't be sure.

The other night, my engine overheated and, well you guessed it, rad is empty. So I topped that up and it's running again. Here is what's weird though...

In the water that I noticed I found a cigarette butt. Is it possible that my evaporator drain tube or whatever it is called is clogged and it's spilling over? Wouldn't it also leak on the passenger side? Could it be a coincidence that my rad fluid was really low? If I drive it now and it actually is the heater coil that is gone, will I do any damage or am I really just going to lose the coolant I just filled it with? Can low coolant alone cause the symptoms of a bad heater coil or do the signs (wet passenger floor) usually mean it is bad? What would be my best course of action?

Warm weather is coming... I could bypass it couldn't I?

txab · March 11, 2011

It's actually called a heater core. From what you describe sounds like yours is leaking. Did the water in floorboard appear to be coolant? Have any smell or taste? You can pressure test your cooling system to check for leaks, you've got a leak somewhere. If the core is bad you can bypass it until you can replace it. Damage that can be done would be that you overheat your engine due to lack of coolant