I am not sure if any of you will recall. I was here a few weeks ago posting about our 98 Chevy Express Van with the coolant leak. We had the water pump replaced and this did not work (but hey at least it is new and has a lifetime warrenty). Turns out that we do have a leak from the intake valve. So it is at the dealer once again being fixed. We were hoping it wasn’t this, but I am pretty sure this was the main problem all along. The guy at the dealer told my husband that the next thing to go might be the heater coil since it is a pressurized system. He said that right now it is testing fine and works. My question for all of you is this:
What are our chances of the heater coil going bad after the water pump and the intake gasket/valve are fixed? From what dh said, the machanic sounded like it was almost a sure thing – but not sure enough to replace it while doing the intake plug/valve. He said not to be surprised if it leaks again!!! BUT the heater coil works fine now.
I think that they guy thought that the intake valve was not our initial problem. Dh and I think that both the intake valve and the water pump were leaking and these two repairs should fix it all. We only did the water pump first because our friend thought most of the moisture was in that area.
What is your opinion.
If the heater core is not leaking now, there is no reason to replace it. Nor is there any reason to assume it will fail soon. I’d wait and see if I were you.
Here is a link to the initial post for some background information:
http://community.cartalk.com/posts/list/360409.page
As I and others mentioned in the original post the intake manifold is prone to leaking. This being said there is no cost savings to be gained from having the heater core done now. If it checks out fine I would not worry about it at this point. The mechanics logic of the heater core going out because it is a pressure system is silly. The radiator and all the hoses are under the exact same pressure as the heater core. Under that logic they should all be replaced. Get the intake fixed and drive happy.
~Michael
Make mine another vote that there’s absolutely no reason to replace the heater core unless it’s leaking, which it apparently isn’t.