am i doing my self harm putting off a heater core replacement?

[dropnosky]

2000 jetta, needs a heater core but i just havent found the time yet this season to do it.

Im using the car for work and put maybe 150 to 200 miles a day on it and am in the car basically from 9am to 6pm 3 to 4 days a week.

It reeks of coolant. The question is am i doing myself harm breathing in the coolant vapor for a month?

Wasnt really thinking about it until I recalled standing coolant is a poison for animals

 

[Henrick]

The fact is that you're not doing any good for your health, that's for sure.

Coolant is poison for animals and humans. It's simply poisonous if one ingests it. And pouring the coolant somewhere is bad because animals may drink it confusing it with water.

 

[jayb79]

Take the o-ring out of the coolant cap, dump in a little stop leak and drive it. I did this on my golf about 4 years ago and have had no problems other then topping up the coolant every now and then.
This assumes it is a stock motor, don't do it if you have any tune or fueling mods.

 

[UhOh]

I'm going to advise AGAINST adding any stop-leak. You run the risk of gumming up other crap.

Today's coolants are far less hazardous than those of yesteryear.

Just bypass the heater core. Pull the connections to the heater hoses, they're on the firewall, and connect them together. A quick Internet search should bring this up for you.

I've done this job (still have loose ends with the AC- WARNING: get your AC discharged before you go to work on things).

 

[UhOh]

One final note/tip - BUY ONLY AN OEM heater core. You can get one for a reasonable price from an on-line VW dealer (I use 1stvwparts.com because they're closest to me): I think mine was something like $150. This job is no fun and you don't want to end up like others have and turn around in a few months and have to do this job again because the "inexpensive" HC failed. (the pain!)

 

[tongsli]

2000 jetta, needs a heater core but i just havent found the time yet this season to do it.

Im using the car for work and put maybe 150 to 200 miles a day on it and am in the car basically from 9am to 6pm 3 to 4 days a week.

It reeks of coolant. The question is am i doing myself harm breathing in the coolant vapor for a month?

Wasnt really thinking about it until I recalled standing coolant is a poison for animals

If you want to buy time, put a u-shaped plastic coupling and just join the in and out at the engine bay.

You won't have heat but it won't leak either.

 

[dropnosky]

I just have to make it to spring and hopefully i can find some time to deal with it. Seeing out of the car has become a real challenge though, every day i need to stop and scrub down the windows about 3 times. Getting very silly

 

[steve6]

if its that bad you should probably bypass it, look into a 12v plug in electrical heater for now....

 

[gatz]

A old guy I worked with about 10 years ago had mysterious debilitating medical problems that doctors were unable to diagnose / pinpoint. He thinks it was because of this exact same situation as OP describes, inhaling vaporized coolant in the car. Coolant chemistry will be different in today's cars, but it's still for sure bad news.

 

[turbobrick240]

I would say long term exposure to ethylene glycol vapors is indeed bad for your health. I don't think today's ethylene glycol is any more benign than the ethylene glycol of yesteryear. Seriously poisonous stuff. I'd fix the leak asap.

 

[Vince Waldon]

Run a bypass, Hudson...

 

[Ol'Rattler]

No, you do not want to breath antifreeze vapors on a regular basis. Even the newer stuff is poisonous.

If you do your own maintenance, you need an alternate plan when things go wrong and have another car you car drive. With some problems, you just need to stop driving the car IMMEDIATELY when some problems crop up.

The reason pets drink antifreeze is not because they mistake it for water, it is because they find it tasty. Even with the newer stuff, they drink enough of it and BOOM they end up dying.

Delaying repairs almost always cost more that if you had fixed the problem when you first noticed it. Antifreeze poisoning could severely increase your medical costs and could give you health issues that you will have for the rest of your life.

If it was me, I would not drive the car anymore until I bypassed the core or tried the stop leak.

With the stop leak you would need to confirm you are not still leaking coolant vapor into the cabin which would be not having to add much coolant. On a tight system, you should not have to add more than say 3 tablespoons of coolant about every 6 months.

Usually, the only thing stop leak clogs is the heater core so even at that the only down side you might have is loss heat, but at least your health would not be compromised by being poisoned by coolant vapor.

 

[meerschm]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene_glycol_poisoning

Ethylene glycol has a low vapor pressure; it does not evaporate readily at normal temperatures and therefore high concentrations in air or intoxication are unlikely to occur following inhalational exposures.[17] There may be a slight risk of poisoning where mists or fogs are generated, although this rarely leads to poisoning as ethylene glycol causes irritation and coughing when breathed in, alerting victims to its presence.[18] Ethylene glycol is not well absorbed through skin meaning poisoning following dermal exposure is also uncommon.[19]

​

Probably will not kill you, but I would still get it fixed.

the above is just for the glycol part of the stuff. there is plenty of other stuff that could cause problems. short or long term.

 

[dropnosky]

Decided to park it yesterday and wait for my ordered dealer core. Will just make the time to install.

Using my other spare 4x4 vehicle instead for the same job. Super useful in snow condition for work, but the economy difference is amusing. 99 2dr explorer. Will go approximately 75% of a long day, or just about a full day of work before needing fuel. Jetta will do nearly 4 days.

 

[Ol'Rattler]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethylene_glycol_poisoning

Ethylene glycol has a low vapor pressure; it does not evaporate readily at normal temperatures and therefore high concentrations in air or intoxication are unlikely to occur following inhalational exposures.[17] There may be a slight risk of poisoning where mists or fogs are generated, although this rarely leads to poisoning as ethylene glycol causes irritation and coughing when breathed in, alerting victims to its presence.[18] Ethylene glycol is not well absorbed through skin meaning poisoning following dermal exposure is also uncommon.[19]

​

Probably will not kill you, but I would still get it fixed.

the above is just for the glycol part of the stuff. there is plenty of other stuff that could cause problems. short or long term.

Thanks for doing some research. Just knowing that it will kill my cat if she drink enough of it convinces me that breathing it's vapors is not a good thing to do.

Does sound like the OP has his head screwed on right and is not potentially putting himself or his loved ones in harms way.

 

[dropnosky]

Repaired! Was never going to find the time, so found a local shop and gladly paid them to do the job. No more coolant smell, seems like a new car now

 

[werewolf]

Just curious what did they charge?

 

[UhOh]

Just curious what did they charge?

Since he was able to type a response I'm guessing that it was less than two arms and two legs

 

[Dimitri16V]

He is still alive , that's priceless

Breathing ethylene glycol not good

 

[dropnosky]

Just curious what did they charge?

It was only one foot and part of a calf. About 600 bucks and change

Actually cheapest quote i got. Dealer was 900

 

[dropnosky]

He is still alive , that's priceless
Breathing ethylene glycol not good

Im going to go on record and say i definitely was doing harm. A consistent cough i had was lingering and worse every evening. When i switched to my other spare car, it cleared up in a few days.

Could be coincidence, but i also was feeling sort of crappy every night, now i feel fine. I am cetain i was poisoning myself.

I think definitely linked. Let this be a lesson to others. If your heater core develops a leak, fix it or bypass it, or stop driving the car until you fix it

 

[Ol'Rattler]

Yup. Breathing poison is not a good thing. Now you have the opportunity to bore us to tears with your posts. May you live long................

 

[dropnosky]

Yup. Breathing poison is not a good thing. Now you have the opportunity to bore us to tears with your posts. May you live long................

stay tuned, I will be posting a dissertation on the typical home weather patterns of dust, delving into the rich history of pet dander and air currents, and part per million collections on various surfaces, complete with graphing and exhaustive analysis on what this means towards cleaning schedules.

on a related note, just bought a life insurance policy

 

[Ol'Rattler]

Well done then. I can hardly wait. With my wife, if I talk about anything of a scientific or technical matter, her eyes roll back in her head and she goes into a comma. So ya, we are all on the edge of our seats.............

 

[fruitcakesa]

It was only one foot and part of a calf. About 600 bucks and change
Actually cheapest quote i got. Dealer was 900

That seems reasonable. Did it include parts too?

 

[dropnosky]

That seems reasonable. Did it include parts too?

Included a vw heater core, worked out pretty decent