How to bypass a leaking heater (easy)

[Adam]

If you keep finding coolant/water leaking from under the dash even when it hasn't rained for 6 months, you can be pretty certain your heater is shot, the easiest fix for this is to bypass it completely.

To do this you need to find some heater hose, interestingly, if you have a spare thermostat bypass hose (the one that goes from the front of the cylinder head to the 'T' piece under the inlet manifold, then this is almost ideal, cut the front 180 degree bend (technically two 90 degree bends seperated by 5 inches of straight, but you know what I mean) and use it to replace the upper and lower heater hoses.

These can either be tied out of the way or removed completely (don't forget to use rubber grommets to block the holes in the firewall if you remove them.)

[ByteMe22]

I had a leaking heater aswell and all I did was go to a wreckers, search through all the cars for a core that doesn't leak and replaced it. it was easy I removed the two heater hoses, (caught the water in a bucket so not to wet the carpet) unscrew two screws, one above and one below the hoses on the passenger side of the car and it slides out. swap the plastic piece over, insert the new core, reconect the hoses fill up the radiator and done it doesn't leak anymore. It only takes about 10-20 mins and I picked up the core for $20 which isn't bad when you need a working heater for roadworth (at least here in Vic).

[TF Jemini]

i am constantly finding light or dark brown stains on the floor that appear to be from dirty water that has leaked from somewhere and i'm guessing that it is from the heater, is this the type of leak you were talking about when you made this workshop tip adam??

also to whoever wrote that bit below, do you think you'de be able to lend a hand and show me wat u did to replace your core?? if you could, please email me at jimmy_jd_25@hotmail.com
thanks mate

[eVirtue]

I also have a problem of brown stains on my floor, typically accumulating under the floor mats where it won't evaporate so well; which i'm unsure of whether it's coolant or dirty water sprayed up from the road that's leaking through possible holes in my floor (haven't check that out yet). It's an '85 RB Gem, so if our problem's related it's probably very general, but being rather new to working on cars i'd like to know if anyone has any ideas on how to identify the problem.