My car:
1996 Ford Taurus
6 cyl


My engine pours out coolant/water and I had problem diagnosed as the heater core by a general automotive repair shop est. ($500-$800). I read about the bypass option. In either case....my question is where should I take it to be fixed at the BEST price?

1. a general auto repair shop.( not the dealership... $900+ Yiikes!)
2. a radiator shop
3. heating & cooling specialist shop

Thanks


(This post was edited by leary on Jan 1, 2008, 3:05 PM)

That's hard to say. The general shop could have a tech that does lots of this stuff. A shop that states that's their specialty could be faster at getting the job done for you. It is an involved job and would be nice to have it done carefully as a lot of dash parts have to move to do this and getting it all back nicely would be a great plus. Ask up front about the job and the price,

T
Tom Greenleaf - MetroWest Boston - USA
http://www.acsource.com/

_________________________________________

http://www.autoacsystems.com/tomgreenleaf/

Thanks for the reply, but is circumventing the core with the bypass option instead of the full core replacement repair going to be much cheaper? I realiize that I won't have a heater but money is an issue for me at the moment.

A heater core is just a small radiator with coolant in and coolant out. You can just bypass it with a hose and you won't get heat. That would be fairly simple and cheap. Never mind the comfort factor but do consider being able to defrost/defog the windshield. If it's cold where you are you might not be able to de-ice the car to drive it at all. They do have some electric heaters (plug in power port) but trust me they are marginal at best. I've used those in boats and like I said they are only a slight help for defogging windows - de-icing would be futile.

So yes it can be done and won't hurt the car if bypassed properly,

T
Tom Greenleaf - MetroWest Boston - USA
http://www.acsource.com/

_________________________________________

http://www.autoacsystems.com/tomgreenleaf/

Thank you Tom. I live in central Cal. near Sacramento so I seldom have the need for defrost/defog. If money wasn't an issue I'd go for the remove/replace of the core. The bypass seems the way to go since its much cheaper...so long as there no affect on my AC which I do use.