I had the bad heater core. It was leaking fluid when I bought the vehicle. That was fixed in March or April of this year. My wife noticed the passengers side carpet was damp today when she was vacuuming. We have rubber floor mats. I lifted the carpet and it was wet underneath. Didn't smell like antifreeze, but it tasted like it. I pulled the seat and folded back all the carpet and it was pretty wet under there. I dried the floor with a hairdryer and I could see the stains from the antifreeze running down the lower part of the firewall, below where the core is. The pan is also stained. The wetness was farther back, under the seat. There was no wetness on the lower portion of the firewall, or towards the front of the pan, towards the dash. That kind of suggest to me this wasn't a recent leak.

The carpet has plastic backing which is adhered to the carpet pad. The pad is foam.The AF seeped between the plastic and the pad, and then into the carpet. From what I can tell, I am not loosing any coolant.

I ran the engine with the heater going. I didn't see any leaking.

I guess I will keep an eye on it but, I am trying to determine if this was AF from the old leak or what, the new core is leaking? How fast does AF evaporate under open conditions?

Is it probable that the plastic carpet backing trapped the coolant in the padding, and the rubber floor mats on top inhibited evaporation? Kind of sandwiched in there. Any discussion would be appreciated.

 

I think you're right to suspect carpet-trapped residuals from March/April. That goop lingers well.

 

Coolant never dries, especially if it's trapped in the padding of the carpet.

 

The heater core does not appear to be leaking since I found the coolant under the mat. I was surprised to find it there actually. When the core was leaking,before I had it changed out, i looked under that carpet and there wasn't any coolant. Thats why I kind of freaked when I saw it on Sunday. The last thing I wanted to find was a defective heater core. Consensus here and from others is coolant evaporates very slowly. Thanks for your time.

 

delete

 

Check the drain tube for the A/C, mine had broken off just short of the firewall. It drained down the inside along the floorboards, collecting in the passenger floorboards.
My then local AAMCO took it in and extended it for me for free, no problems since.

 

You are over 5 years too late

 

Yes I just noticed that, but it may help someone else with that problem.

 

If you go into your profile settings you can turn off the infinite scroll and the "show related threads". The related threads option makes it really easy to end up in a dead thread without realizing it.

 

Also the post listing page shows the original post date and the last response to it.