Coolant issue! Heater Core?

[DeRek_AgIn]

Lucky me after buying a used 2018 JLUR I turned on the heat and instant coolant smell. The reservoir was almost bone dry. I refilled it and plan to watch it over the next few days. The carpets are dry but as soon as I turn on the blower for heat or A/c a drain over the transmission starts pouring water instantly. My thought is still heater core but would love some input. I really do not want to remove this dash.

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[Jeep Wick]

Your short video just looks like condensation, normal for the a/c. Try running the heat on the floor without the a/c on, see if you get the same result. Is this a 2.0? There was a TSB for the water pump bolts.

 

[DeRek_AgIn]

It’s a 3.6l. This flow is the same heat or A/c and starts flowing immediately. Just with the heat comes the smell of coolant. As soon as turning off the blower the flow stops.

 

[Deleted User 38384]

Lucky me after buying a used 2018 JLUR I turned on the heat and instant coolant smell. The reservoir was almost bone dry. I refilled it and plan to watch it over the next few days. The carpets are dry but as soon as I turn on the blower for heat or A/c a drain over the transmission starts pouring water instantly. My thought is still heater core but would love some input. I really do not want to remove this dash.

That's pretty normal. That's exactly what it's supposed to do. When your AC is running, it produces condensation. I'd dare you to find a vehicle that doesn't leave water underneath when the AC starts running. Good luck, you're going to need it! ?

As an added note, to lessen the amount of humidity that the heater produces when you turn the heat on, most modern vehicles will initiate the AC as well to dry out the air coming out of the vents. Last thing you want when you're trying to defrost your windows is to create more humidity to freeze on them.

Depending how hard your AC unit is working, will differentiate the amount of condensation dripping.

Sounds like you fixed it by adding the coolant. Probably good idea to just keep an eye on the coolant levels like you were saying. One of the downsides of buying used vehicles is you never know exactly why they traded it in. ??‍

 

[Deleted User 38384]

It’s a 3.6l. This flow is the same heat or A/c and starts flowing immediately. Just with the heat comes the smell of coolant. As soon as turning off the blower the flow stops.

There is a possibility your heater core has a small leak in it and coolant is getting into the vent system. If that's true... Best of luck to you! The heater cores on these Wranglers are NOT easily accessible. I've always figured if my heater core goes, I'm just going to remove the fuse and freeze all winter! I'm not about to pay some shop $2,000 to tear apart my dash just to get to the heater core and replace it.

Like most of the OEM parts on the Wrangler, you can get quality replacement pieces fairly inexpensive...

Just so know you literally have to remove the entire dash to access it. So you're going to be looking at a very pricey fix if your heater core is leaking.

I don't know if it will help you at all, but here's the location of the heater core inlet and outlet pipes...

Mine's an EcoDiesel, but the 3.6 l should have the same heater core location I believe.

The pink circle is going to be your heater core inlet, and the green circle is going to be your heater core outlet.

(You can ignore the little blue handle on my heater core inlet, that was a stupid mistake I made which could have killed my Jeep, but you know f*** it why not!)

Not sure how exactly you would test to see if there's leak in the heater core other than monitoring coolant levels. Maybe you should run your heater for like 30 minutes or an hour in your driveway and see what happens with the coolant levels.

Because of the firewall in the engine bay, if you smell it only when the blower motor is running, there's a good chance you're concern is accurate and it's inside the cabin, the leak that is. If you smell at all times it's coming from in the engine bay more than likely.

I hope this helps somewhat. Hopefully there's some smarter people on here than me who have better knowledge of the heater core. I've only recently started messing around with things in the engine bay of my EcoDiesel.

 

[DeRek_AgIn]

After a 15 mile drive coolant level has already went from max to below minimum. I can’t find the coolant anywhere and oil level is normal. Sounds like it’s time to start removing this dash

 

[DeRek_AgIn]

Wow that removal process sucked but I would say I found the issue

 

[Phrank]

Balls. Great big cast iron balls...

 

[DeRek_AgIn]

Balls. Great big cast iron balls...

They’re just big legos… somebody put them together once I’m just repeating the process

 

[58Willys]

Wow, glad you found the issue. How many hours did it take to remove everything?

 

[DeRek_AgIn]

Wow, glad you found the issue. How many hours did it take to remove everything?

I have about 8 hours into removing the dash and heater core. Waiting on parts to go back together. It was absolutely not easy and very time consuming but it beats dealership prices.

 

[Jeep Wick]

Kudos to you for doing this yourself. Nice work!

 

[NPC 20883467]

The first JLs are 6 years old now... I figured it was time for stuff like this to start popping up.

 

[DeRek_AgIn]

The first JLs are 6 years old now... I figured it was time for stuff like this to start popping up.

My luck I bought this from a private seller about 3 weeks ago. Only has 50k miles.
I ordered the part from rock auto and received the wrong part. I reordered from a dealer and should have it tomorrow to begin the install

 

[DeRek_AgIn]

Finally back together all that is left is to recharge the A/C. Definitely not a job for the faint hearted. Holy crap it was a lot of work and I will not be doing again. (Pic is missing the last top trim piece on the dash but it’s installed now)

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