water noise

[ERNHRT8]

I'm hearing a water moving sound in the middle of the dash area whenever I push on the gas. And sometimes I smell the radiator smell. But it's not leaking water. I was stuck in a traffic jam and steam was coming out the vent near my windshield. What is that? And is it expensive to fix? HELP!?!?!?!

[theFREAKnasty82]

sounds like your heater core is leaking; get that fixed soon b4 you run into a situation where you start overheating.

[ERNHRT8]

Originally Posted by theFREAKnasty82

sounds like your heater core is leaking; get that fixed soon b4 you run into a situation where you start overheating.

Well nuts. Is the heater core on the outside of the firewall, or is it in the dash? And what kind of money (guesstimate) am I looking at?

[theFREAKnasty82]

It's in the dash and not easy for the home mechanic to fix; if you go to a shop, it'll usually run you around $500

[Big Dan58]

I’m surprised that you haven’t had overheating problems yet. It does sound like a heater core. In the meantime, you can bypass the heater core by connecting the 2 hoses that go to the heater together. You won’t have a heater in the car, but it won’t overheat the car, if overheating hasn’t caused any damage yet. Don’t wait to get this fixed or bypassed. If you let it go, it can blow a head gasket (serious and very expensive repair!) About $500.00 to repair the heater core isn’t too bad because of the work involved in replacing it. It’s no picnic!

[ERNHRT8]

Originally Posted by Big Dan58

I’m surprised that you haven’t had overheating problems yet. It does sound like a heater core. In the meantime, you can bypass the heater core by connecting the 2 hoses that go to the heater together. You won’t have a heater in the car, but it won’t overheat the car, if overheating hasn’t caused any damage yet. Don’t wait to get this fixed or bypassed. If you let it go, it can blow a head gasket (serious and very expensive repair!) About $500.00 to repair the heater core isn’t too bad because of the work involved in replacing it. It’s no picnic!

Would you believe that it took 3 different auto shops to finally figure out the problem, and you aren't going to believe this but here is what the problem was: The hose between the overflow and the radiator was kinked and that was allowing air to get in and the water noise happened when the air pocket got into the heater core, that allowed the water wooshing/gurgling noise. Never in a million years would I have ever believed it, but Dodge had a message out about this known problem in the Stratus'. And you thought you had heard everything!! Thanks for your advice!