Water Leak Right Front Passenger side

[cmdrgala]

Hello My Fellow Aurora Drivers;

Well, I was driving along in my Oldsmobile, and when I stopped and parked the car today noticed a strong smell of antifreeze inside of the car

I notice the smell came from the right front passenger side, under the dash board. The floor was wet and fell mosture from under the dask board where all the air vend are.

Any idea what caused this or what is causing this to leak inside the car.
I just know this is a dealer job.

Your help and advise is always appreciated.

Thanks, from California the land of bad roads and $ 2.65 a gallon for 91 octane.

[dsatt12]

Your heater core is leaking.

I apologize in advance if you already know all this... Your heater core is a little mini radiatior that sits up by the firewall under the dash area. It gets fed by coolant (antifreeze) from the engine. The blower motor blows air over it to heat/cool the passenger compartment.

To fix it (aside from dropping it off at a shop and saying "fix it" that is) you have to take the underside of the dash apart until you find it. It might just have clips on some aluminum lines that you can pop off and remove the heater core. If not, some of the lines being crimped on permanently, you have to unhook the feed lines on the engine side of the firewall and remove some fasteners holding the lines in place and pull the unit through from the compartment side. Then just put everything back together the reverse of how you did it before. It just sucks working upside down under the dash, maybe even with your back soaking in a pool of stinky antifreeze.

I should point out that I've never had to do this to my Aurora, so if anyone has pertinent details to add...

Good luck.

[dsatt12]

Oh, and it shouldn't really have to be a dealer job by any means. As for the parts, I looked up the OEM one for $72 and an aftermarket one for $57- both with lifetime warranties. You'll likely get charged a couple of hours of labor at a minimum if you take it in somewhere, but they'll earn it. The bright side is unless you've got really crappy luck it's not something that will go bad again.