Car overheating and wet carpet and STEAM coming out! HELP!

[Alex228]

Hello all, I own a 95 240SX. I usually take the car to the mechanic when something is wrong but I just took a vacation and am kind of short in cash so I wanna try to fix this myself.

Ok so about 2 months ago the car started overheating, I would look beneath the car and it seemed as if coolant/water was leaking when parked overnight. So I went out and purchased Leak Stop or something like that which was like a sand and I poured it in as directions stated. Leaking seemed to stop, I drove to Miami and back, I still had to stop once and refill with water, but it was better than before. Lately the carpet in the passanger side of the car has been getting wet and when im driving STEAM comes out of the AC vents even when the temps seem to be normal. Now the car overheats quickly once again, especially faster when the AC is on, steam comes out even when the AC is OFF and the carpet on the passanger side is wet.

My buddy said it might be the heater core or/and the thermostat. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Wc240]

id say check the heater core first

[whyteboi]

for using stop leak, it will destroy a heater core so id also say start there

[Alex228]

Ok so when you say check, you mean see if its clogged or what. How would I know if its broken? And where can I get instruction on removing the dash?Thanks

[zach-Ka]

If you really want to start working on your car yourself, then it would be a great idea to get a chiltons manual , http://www.themotorbookstore.com/altima.html, which you can purchase at your local parts store) that will give you clear step by step instructions with detailed pictures. Definitely sounds like your heater core is leaking...http://shop.advanceautoparts.c...36___Get a new one, I also recommend flushing your coolant system, Stop leak can mess up alot of stuff.http://www.240sx.org/faq/articles/coolant.htm

After you have done this it might be a good idea to get a compression test of the coolant system, If you don't have one or don't know anyone with one then your local mechanics shop should do this for very cheap, it takes maybe fifteen minutes including waiting for the car to cool down.

[maryjane]

the stop leak is the worse things invented in the automotive history

[Wc240]

^^^ not gonna say worst, but its in the top ten worse products

[PyR0NiAk]

Well, the water/coolant on your carpet is 99% likely to be your heater core. This, like mentioned above, was probably caused by the stop leak. Remove dash, replace heater core. That problem will be fixed. The scary thing here, is the fact that you said there was no more visible leak but you were still losing coolant. THAT sounds like a blown head gasket. I definitely recommend the compression test as Zach recommended above. You'll most likely find really low compression on at least 1 cylinder. You can also go ahead and see if your oil has antifreeze in it. It'll cause the oil to be milky is the fastest way to identify the problem.