I almost fainted today when I got home this afternoon from a short drive. My beautiful faux wood floor mats had green coolant spilled on top.

I don't know what the hell went wrong. This does come after I had to move around a couple a/c hoses... another thing I've been grappling with. Turns out the high side hose leading to the expansion valve was clogged. That's been a nightmare and a half on its own: ordered a new evaporator from rock auto, that turned out to be crap. So I just put my old OEM one back in there. Not to mention that's to originally replace the one I ordered earlier this year...which based on my leak detector, seemed to have leaks.

I was trying to remove the high side hose and flush it...but the fatter low side hose was in the way, and in the end I couldn't remove either without disconnecting the heater core hoses anyway.

I'm wondering if I was too rough and broke or punctured something. I took both hoses off and did the by pass, and didn't see any cracks along the plastic heater core. I did notice the lower heater core attachment seemed a bit more wiggly than the top, but not much.

Even though my a/c isn't recharged yet, I didn't wanna have to go thru dropping the glove compartment (at-least I don't have to remove the dashboard to get to either) and seeing what happened again. Last time, I didn't have a tight enough clamp and the new Nissan core leaked right away. I'm wondering if this time there a problem with the old rubber hoses or just get all new clamps. This time it's not a stream of water from under the dashboard, but more of a drip drip drip. Not to mention, lately I've been hearing these gurgly noises at cold startup. But no leaks whenever I pull back the carpet til now.

If it's the core or plastic hoses itself, I'm just going to sell by winter. I'm just regretting not just keeping the by pass to begin with. Disconnecting my a/c lines and not changing the drier has just messed up my whole a/c system which was working fine all last summer.

Trade it for a 4 banger man. You need to get rid of it. On a side note. Major in English or something. You seem to enjoy stories and essays. Dont mean to be a dlck but cut your losses and move on

BCC93QT wrote: ↑

Tue Jun 23, 2020 3:53 am

Trade it for a 4 banger man. You need to get rid of it. On a side note. Major in English or something. You seem to enjoy stories and essays. Dont mean to be a dlck but cut your losses and move on

Lol, I actually did come for some suggestions to the current issues. No need to be judgmental. If you want to buy from me, I’ll let go for $2,500, but I’ve already done some car shopping and few dealers want to “trade in” an aging vehicle...they want $1,500-2,000 down, which is a lot more than the few bucks here and there I’m spending to track down a persistent issue. And at this point, buying a new car is not on my top priority list...

Only reason I’m having to keep doing this, is because in my area I haven’t really been able to get a good a/c diagnostic...nobody really wants to invest the time into it because there’s not enough people with knowledge about this car. One shop I went to for my brake booster, wanted to charge $120 for a/c evac, vac, and recharge before doing anything else, and I’ve already paid 2 shops to do that this year, and it still would not get cold.

So I’m having to backtrack to where I can recall things went wrong, and it lead to the high side hose into the evaporator. There was a blockage. Likely from the drier dessicant bag exploding.

Considering I already by passed the core, I’m just going to go with the previous attempt to just lift the hose up and out, then flush. I went to shop yesterday and was given some a/c pointers, but I should be in the right direction from here.

As for the topic issue, if it’s a hairline crack in the plastic I may can get by with a water pump/thermostat sealant. It’s not my fault that the NEW SUPERCEDED heater core contained the SAME s*** PLASTIC that had caused the leaks to begin with. Why should I get the blame for s*** manufacturing. Should have been made from metal, with a direct bolt on access from the firewall.

I gave you a suggestion. AC diagnostic is pretty simple. The past few months you have given us essays after stories. We are not here to fix your car. From what I've read you arent going to fix it yourself either. I was in the same position with my first Q. If you arent going to educate yourself on this vehicle and do it yourself it is not worth it. Bringing a rare import to random mechanics for random repairs will get you no where.
COVID-19 is your savior. What company is not offering 0% for 6 years. Go get a Corolla Elantra Sentra or whatever for nothing down. 175-200 a month.

I am not here to put you down. I simply believe rigorously honest truth is superior to a sweet comforting lie

Thanks for the suggestions, but since when did people get so judgmental about DIY having issues? But again, you are making assumptions based on?? How do you know I have the credit to be approved for $175/200 a month PLUS insurance of course? That’s all based OAC. Full coverage at that. Then that looks more like $300-400 a month.

I’ve had “4 bangers” before. Reason I don’t drive those cars is because I travel often and tend to end up in mountainous areas, and a 4 cylinder car going up a steep mountain pass has to redline a few times. Add luggage, you almost blowing a transmission.

Plus those cars are small and flimsy. By the time one finishes paying them off, the warranty runs out and the transmission croaks. I have heard the stories. Only reason I’m going thru the lengths I am...is because I want a WORKING Infiniti. I’m not the type to drive a luxury car where nothing works. That defeats the point. I want the heat to work, the a/c to work, everything.

BUT MOVING ALONG....

I took all but 30 minutes to get to the core out today (having removed the evap box like 100 times already. The leak DID NOT have to do with the plastic tubes. It had to do with the heater core itself. I knew something was not right because when my old tubes were corroding, it was a stream coming down the firewall and running under the carpet.

This time, it was a drip from under the dashboard cover. The heater core box was saturated. This must was a defective heater core, that I brought from an authorized Infiniti site/dealer, but they have since closed the site.

I’ve already ordered a replacement one from the parts store...being the tubes are reusable. But now I may not even get the $250 I spent on the OEM heater core just 6 months ago. So definitely not my fault nor should I be criticized for feeling a little f*** frustrated at this s***. And there’s no visible damage points anywhere, but it’s a pretty large seam leak.

And along with that...the h side hose leading to the expansion valve is clogged, so I have to take to my “random” mechanic tomorrow to have the tubes air blown out. I really don’t mind random mechanics, but I also can’t afford to take the car to the “Japanese specialists” and pay $1,000 all at once. Plus I’ve been to those places, afterawhile they get tired of working with DIY’s. They want customers who are going to do everything with them, let them touch everything, and have relatively newer cars that won’t give them too much hassle.

Just like the other popular shop near me now: they did my compressor last year and everything worked fine, and they recharged it this year after replacing my heater core. But they said it wasn’t getting cold. No real answer or deeper investigation, and when trying to rebook to have it looked at again, they’ve just been telling me they’re booked.

Last time I was there, the mechanic asked if I thought about getting a new car. So I figure they don’t want to work with me anymore. So here I am, doing all this f*** s*** myself. And for the most part, I’m doing a pretty good job I think, of narrowing down what occurred. Dryer dessicant bag exploded, a/c stop leak gummed up the expansion valve...but I didn’t know until I opened everything up. Saving myself like $500 right now.

Update:

I still don't know what caused the sudden heater core leak...but I'm convinced it was already failing to begin with. For one, when I first installed it 6 months ago, I had a weird sudden drop in coolant temperature shortly after. It only happened once, but figured because it was winter.

My new Murray heater core seems to be working fine, however I'm pulling carpet back every day making sure nothing is leaking. Pretty sure I am still hearing a little gurgly noises behind dash, but before putting together I ran engine for 10 minutes and checked for leaks, seen non. May need to just add more coolant.

This has me leery about online infintiparts now. I know infintipartsdeal has always been reliable, but truth is, many infiniti dealers try to make websites, and then go out of business. Idk if the coolant leak was for certain a defect, or an issue with my cooling system, but for $250 I damn should have gotten more then 6 months use out of it.