What is this? I just found out it's leaking coolant and just wondering what the crap it's called so I can go get a new one

 

Heater control valve.

 

Heater bypass valve or heater control valve. It is used to bypass the heater core when the heat is off. That is a pretty common problem.

 

That is the leak-o-matic. Unreliable and unecessary (factory eliminated it in later years). Don't waste your time and money replacing it, you will only have to do it again. The bypass mod is very popular and much safer.

 

when was it factory eliminated?

 

They are pretty cheap. Just replace it. It enables the engine to reach operating temp quicker by skipping the heater core. They eliminated them in later years but are back to using them on some newer vehicles.

 

It was eliminated in the 1997 model year.

That valve is well known for catastrophic failures. The constant heating and cooling embrittles the plastic. A few people have had them break while on the highway and wound up running out of coolant at high temps under load. It's not worth the risk to the engine. Chrysler recognized this and eliminated it.

The purpose is to let cold vent air actually be cold and limit heat into the HVAC system. However this is accomplished by the vent door anyway. It has nothing to do with warmup time. (If it did, you'd expect it on newer models with tighter emissions requirements). I can't imagine such a small system impacting warmup by more than a few seconds.

 

Do you have a link on how to bypass it?

 

I tried looking for a writeup, but most people just say "replace with 97+ hoses and plug the vacuum line". Seems fairly simple

 

I agree that it is not necessary. But why start pulling parts that may go bad in the future? I have seen hoses and radiators blow and cause engine failure. Eliminate those too? Try and go air cooled because you may have a radiator leak in the future? And they ARE using similar systems on new cars again for improved emissions and fuel economy

 

I don't doubt that OTHER vehicles have a good and reliable design, however THIS vehicle's HCV is not worth the trouble, and THIS vehicle is what we're discussing here. If you don't believe me just do a search on here about problems reported.