Rusty coolant and clogged heater core

Have searched the forum and found similar problems but with no resolution to the problem. Our '09 Jetta was putting out no heat and diagnosed with faulty heater core. That is 15 hrs labor. Questioned as to if it was possibly clogged and flushing might work. Dealer has been flushing it with solvents for a week. They say it is almost done but want to make sure no soot shows up again. Their last step might be to flush with CLR per VWoA input. My question is whether it is rust or coolant breakdown. Other posts have said they had a rusty colored build up on their hoses. This vehicle has 180k miles and only serviced at this dealership. Somebody has surely had this problem before.

Normally, the only reason the cooling system should have had to have been touched under normal service is when the timing belt + water pump was changed at 120k. If they used a substandard coolant mix then, it may be why you are having issues now.

Typically, the G12+ stuff I see in these, so long as it is never contaminated, seems to hold up pretty well.

87k on my 2009 JSW. Your experience doesn't bode well for those of us that have had discolored coolant. I had a frostheater installed at 800 miles, tech swears he only added G12+ with distilled water, but I chose to have my system flushed at around 50k miles.
Sorry to hear about the heater core. 15 hours labor? I find that hard to believe. I know it's a tough job, but 15 hours?

Actually, it is not tough. It comes out without having to remove much of anything, it has a cover on the side of the heater box, by the pedals. Labor time is only 2.8 hours (Alldata).

So if they charged you labor for 15 hours.... wow.... I hope they kissed you, because they sure as heck screwed you.

They have not replaced the heater core yet. They are trying the flushes first under goodwill. I don't know the exact hrs but service advisor (which in my experience, is the furthest thing from a mechanic) ball-parked it at 12 to 15.
The advisor keeps saying previous owner probably put the wrong type of coolant in it. Obviously he is not aware that all service was completed and documented by his dealership. Or just trying to BS me.

1)Ball-parked at 12 to 15 [hours] when Alldata says 2.8??????

2)"...previous owner probably put the wrong type of coolant in it...", when the documentation in front of him states that "his" dealership did al the service???

3) Run away as fast as you can...

Keep in mind there is several ways the coolant can flow and loops in the coolant system so if they are "flushing" it with some sort of formula to break up the clog, the flush could just be bypassing the clog in the heater core.

http://www.natef.org/NATEF/media/NATEFMedia/VW Files/2-0-TDI-SSP.pdf (page 23)

The easy way to fix it is to reverse flush the heater core from where it connects through the firewall. On the engine side, not inside the car.
I did it myself from under the car. Just unhooked the hoses going into the car and hooked up some clear tubing from home depot. Then I flushed both ways with water hose.

Here is my exact same story as yours.. 09 jetta
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=424414&highlight=heat

They are telling me the heater core replacement requires dash removal. Have not found any info online that states otherwise.

They have been flushing the system and back-flushing with an Audi product specifically made for this type of flush. They state they are also driving 20-30 miles to to ensure complete saturation of the product in the system.

"Silicondt", I did see your post but saw no way to easily access the core lines at firewall.

you can get an alldatadiy.com subscription for $20 or so.

it is pretty clear that you do not need to disassemble the dashboard.

Yeah, it looks pretty easy. I've never done one, however.

oilhammer said:

Yeah, it looks pretty easy. I've never done one, however.

Click to expand...

...NOW he tells us... seriously, how accurate is Alldata with their labor estimates?
My dealer said, off the top of his head, 5-6 hours. Claims he's only seen 3 or 4 MkV heater core replacements (still nowhere close to 15 hours!)

Since OH does this stuff for a living and has for many years, and also has access to AllData, I'll trust what he says.

And from my own garage, if AllData says XXX hours, it can probably be done properly in less time by a competent mechanic.

The engine compartment firewall hose disconnect and dedicated flush looks a lot easier than going straight to the core replacement.

esp. as the first step in the heater core replacement is to remove those same hoses and blow the coolant out to minimize mess inside the passenger compartment.

unless the thing is leaking, some dedicated back and forth flushing seems like it would be worth while.

( I know that a dealer might be tempted to go straight for the R&R and pocket the parts markup as well as labor)

If the OP drives his car here to our shop, I'll be glad to do it for 2.8 and take pictures along the way. If Alldata is wrong, so be it. Sometimes they are way off, but usually they are pretty close. I tend to look at the actual procedure to verify the time allotment.

In this case, 2.8 seems to be about right.

I still think if it's a clog like mine was.. running "flush" through it does nothing. The "flush mix" will just go a different route around the clog. It will just not go through the EGR cooler/ heater core route.

If you put the car up on jack stands and look up on the firewall from under you will see two hoses going into the car. They have quick disconnects on them. I could NOT get those quick disconnects off. They were baked on or something. I just took the hoses off the quick disconnects using a remote hose clamp tool...
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51TAPZdWqTL._SX522_.jpg

Also a tool to remove the hose itself helps ALOT.
http://www.ricksfreeautorepairadvic...ads/2011/07/Lisle-80200-hose-removal-tool.jpg

Once the hoses are off from the quick disconnects you can hook up clear home depot hoses to them. I just pushed the clear hose onto the quick disconnects and it was tight enough to not have to use clamps. I can't remember the hose size.. 1-1/2" maybe? The tubing was like 6 ft long so I could bring it out from under the car for easier hook up to water hose.

Then I hooked up a water hose to the clear tubing via duck tape... and turned it on.. I had the other side of the clear hose going into a bucket so I could see what it caught coming out. I also reversed the water hose and flushed it both ways a couple times. The output I always had going into a bucket to catch what was coming out.

Once I was ALLL done clearing the heater core out I pushed the tap water out just using my mouth pushing air through the hose..

Then I pushed distilled water through the core to get rid of all tap by pouring distilled water in the hose slowly and pushing it with air pressure using my mouth.

All this cost me like $50.

Using the home flush method, were you able to see significant debris removal and what did it look like?

And I may have to take oilhammer up on his offer. Only 5.5 hrs away.

sweetlou132 said:

And I may have to take oilhammer up on his offer. Only 5.5 hrs away.

Click to expand...

Nice road trip make it an over nighter, take in some sights, what's not to like. And it'll be done right.

http://imgur.com/a/MAkmF#8
Here is what the heater core looks like from inside the car.
You can take the kick guard off (where your right foot is as driver)
There is also a plastic guard over the heater core.
With the car coolant hot (drive around for a few miles) the heater core should be hot from top to bottom. Mine was only hot on one half... So the coolant was making it's way to the heater and VERYYYYY slowly trickling through. But the air flowing over the heater core just made it cool off instantly since the flow was so bad.

When I reverse flushed it you could tell there was a build up in pressure then SPLUSH... a bunch of this came out and the clog was cleared up.
http://imgur.com/a/FmFGA

Its been good for 6 months so far.

Calcium deposits... thank you dealer service dept for using tap water.

Just received the car back today. After multiple, multiple flushes with numerous additives the coolant was finally clear of all sediment and remaining clear. Heater core was still only putting off lukewarm heat. They replaced it yesterday. They spent many hours on this car. No charge.
Hats off to Fairfield VW (Cincinnati).

No charge, heater core replacement, on your 2009 Jetta? Wow.

Is it really that simple to slip it out without killing dash?

I had the same problem, no heat cold cabin. So I flushed my heater core today and lots of the gunk came out. I then refilled with new G12 and had lots of heat through the vents. Thanks for posting this.

There has been some speculation on 09 coolant being less than perfect. I have seen a few with ugly coolant and no tampering or mixing. Mine was horrible in my car when I did the timing belt. Maybe VW was experimenting with coolants that year.

Later I had to do the heater core. It does come out in the footwell. I had a bit of a struggle with the clamps on the core tubes and gaskets, but it still took only 3.5 hours for the job.

I had the core in my hands at 1/2 hour. If the clamps would have cooperated as designed I would have had it backing out the door at 2.5.

It is a little cramped under there and hard to get at but beats the dash pull types for sure.

Due to design with both tubes entering the core from the top particles fall out of the coolant and fill the core up. Flushing does little good when they plug up. Very much like the poor design of the Passat/A4 core that we have had so much fun with over the years.