okay so almost 200k on the truck and I guess the HVAC puff the majic dragon has finally come. Or I have Cheech and chong hiding under my dash.

so the last week when the truck would hit about half on engine warm up I noticed without the Fan on a couple small trails of vapor smoke coming from the vents. I originally thought it may have been moisture. of course when i turn on the Fan on any setting you no longer see the stuff in the air.

I have full heat, blend doors do work and temp control does work.
I then though about my A/C a year or so ago I had my A/C compressor puke a bunch of fluid straigh back toward the motor mount as that is where it hit.
I didn't want to mess with the A/C and really dont use it. But I do use and have been using the defrost alot this winter and that cycles the A/C. I hear the compressor kick on and off alot. last week I was thinking I should get a non A/C serpentine Belt but never did.

so going into yesterday in the morning when I got off work and tonight when i went to work. The steam out of the vents is more. I cant really say if its more or less with the system turned to off or turned on. When its turned on I cant see the steam anymore.

I have the Vinyl Floors and I noticed a couple drips on the pass side floor. ... I wiped up and could not tell of a certain color. it does have a oily feel. I then looked up and next to the blower motor resistor by the blower housing it is forming a couple drop beads. it has a slight green color.

I know my A/C fluid was refilled prior to it puking and green dye was added.
So at this point Im unsure what fluid it is.

either way I know what has to happen to get to this. what I'm looking for I guess is some suggestions.

I can do alot of the repairs on this but honestly with my schedule 10-12 hours a day having a kid and working at a VA Hospital at nights I may look at someone else doing this.

But if I do it myself since I'm going to be in there and have the HVAC box pulled i think I should replace everything I can.

I'm not going to buy factory $MOPAY parts.
what brand would you guys recommend. Also right now I do not need to replace the A/C compressor. I can always replace the A/C componets inside the HVAC/Box only and replace the rest of stuff under the hood later.

Heater Core
Heater Hose
Fan Blower
Fan blower Resistor
A/C Core.

So depending on how dirty it is. I know I can pull the heater core without splitting the box but can i pull the A/C core the same. when I bought the truck I did put a cab fresh air system on it (Geno's) it really doesn't make the cab smell better but with the material used it does block the vents from crap falling down. So I honestly dont think its as bad as some.

any help or tips would be great.
Also I do have a friend that owns a shop. prior to that he worked for dodge/jeep/chrysler for 13 years. I know he is familiar with this. I dont know what to expect from labor and parts. I know he would be nice to me but I'm still thinking this would be in the 900$-1500$ depending on what parts are needed etc.

 

Antifreeze most likely if you saw a puff of vapor/steam. If you replace the core, stick with a Mopar part. The a/c kicks in and out as a defogger since it removes moisture from the incoming air. That's if it does work. Not uncommon for the evaporator and heater core to rot. Lot of stuff gets sucked in through the cowl.

 

If you search on here there are ways of changing the heater core other than removing the hvac plenum, swivel connections or just cutting them off and using hose clamps. That said if you are going to pull the plenum then change both the heater core and the evaporator as the evaporator can't be removed any other way. Everything else can be got at after the fact. Make sure all the doors work before putting it all back together. Look at the front of the AC compressor if it's oily the front seal is leaking if not let it be.

 

so I already know the heater core was leaking, I confirmed the A/C compressors seat is shot. So I will have the entire A/C system replaced also
this is the price i got from my friends shop.
mopar brass heater core
complete A/C system replaced and charged.
I already had spare upper and lower rad hoses and cummins water pump and he will put these on as well.
so labor and parts.
1500$

This will include a 12 month warranty. I think this is a great price for all that is being done.
truck will be down for almost 2 days. I will be doing this in about 2 weeks so I will update when done.

This is the friend that when my ECM went out he got me a Chrysler new ECM flashed and installed for 550$ he charged me his price plus labor.

A good friend that is a honest mechanic is hard to find.

Thanks for the replies

 

had to replace mine twice. About 7 years back, the a/c was shot. When I took it in to a trusted dealer (mechanic there was questionable), I had them do the evap and told them to do the core while inside. Year before last, the core started leaking. Ordered an aftermarket set ( might as well do both) through rockauto. Got turned onto a mopar tech that moonlighted. Took him about 3 hours to swap both. Then the new core leaked on the way home. BS aluminum replacement with swivel pipes. Knew that was a mistake. Arranged to send that back and ordered an OE Mopar core as God intended. Back to the guy to tear it all out again. Luckily it was cheap enough to pay labor twice since he's done enough of those to hustle.
After I replaced it, I pulled the plastic cowl cover. Cleaned up the area around the air inlets. Formed some aluminum screen and bonded it to the openings with collision panel adhesive. On the plastic cowl cover, we heat welded screen also. The 93~98 Grand Cherokee share the same HVAC. The factory warranty repair for this also included screens in the Jeep, nothing for the truck. Back to the original replacement I paid for years back, When we pulled the box 2 years back, the core had a Mopar date code of 98, so looks like the core I paid for never went past the mechanics tool box.

 

since I have own the truck late 2005 well sometime in 2005 I bought the kit from genos that is molded and goes over the vents on the outside. they come with a crap material with charcoal fused in it. The material is crap but I wanted the black molded pieces. I went to a fabric shop (like one that wife or Nanna) would go to. I bought 1/2 thick synthetic cushion or pillow foam. Its stuff that does not mold, will not break down and is breathable. I cut it out in the original shape of the stuff that came with the kit. I then cut small mesh screen for on top of the foam. I have complete coverage over the vents. water and air can enter but nothing else.

So looking at my hvac/box through the glove box I would say out of 1-10 on how clean it looks I would say a 9. a very very light dust on top of box housing. for almost 3 of the years of owning my truck due to where I parked at for work and new construction and new water and service lines were being placed in field next to my parking spot and then the prep for roadway on top. My truck was always dusted good from the constuction. like to a point I would have a quarter inch dust build up on wiper blades.
so the material I used works great for filtering. I just take it out and clean it 2 times yearly.

ditto on no swivel tube cores.

That is why I made sure I'm using only the OE Brass Core.

 

If you can smell antifreeze its probably the heater core giving it up...

Touch drops of moisture on floor with kleenex or paper towel. the material will separate out if antifreeze...much like cerebral-spinal fluid will, a circle of moisture with a darker outer ring...

 

its for sure the heater core . it will be a couple of weeks before I can do this due to my schedule. my question now is I'm not dripping on the floor board and do not see any fluid anywhere else and I now notice my fluid level in the overflow bottle low. it is now on the low mark with a cold engine. Normally would be 1/4 to 1/2 between the low and high mark on bottle.

I have noticed when driven it does get to 190 Degrees but will shoot up to 200-210 temp than minutes later go to 180-190. is this normal if I have a bad core that is leaking? I have pulled the glove box and cannot see alot of fluid on top of the HVAC/box. Assuming this is leaking into the HVAC/Box.
I have no choice but to drive the truck until I can have the full system repaired. I'm driving it with the heat selector on off and temp control on cold with no fan. I would hate to waste good new coolant and dont expect weather temps in the next 2 weeks to get colder than 45 degrees.
Can I get away with just adding distilled water until this is fixed?
or should I just go on the engine side and plug both coolant lines from the engine?

if so what would be the best method of doing? size of plugs or just connect the 2 lines?

Thanks all

 

Connecting the two is what I would do to bypass the core..

I'd also check the antifreeze for solution so you don't lose a freeze plug or worse if we have another cold snap.

Also sounds like your thermostat may be sticky...even towing mine barely gets over the 190 mark before dropping down a bit....

 

the coolant that it is in it now is the correct mixture. I have only had about 10 this winter around freezing or just below. I'm safe on enough solution in the mix.
I would think that if the top of my HVAC/Box has little to not much Coolant showing now whatever is leaking and causing the steam to come out vent. Where is the fluid. In the HVAC/Box?

anyway I think I will do what I should have last week on my last days off and bypass the core. should I plug both ends or just route the 2 hoses together?
I guess it wouldn't really matter I will just connect the 2 hoses and be done.

I really haven't fogged up much as I have left my windows down 2 inches on both sides due to my window guards but I need to find a plug in seat cover that gets warm

 

just posting that I was able to drop off the truck today with my days off. so tomorrow or Friday morning I will have heat and a new A/C unit..
fingers crossed my dash doesn't crumble in pieces on my mechanic friend.

 

Good luck on the dash. Mine looks awful but no pieces falling out yet...probably shouldn't have thought that..

I was thinking if your heat box gets hot enough and your drain plug is clogged, you could be steaming off condensation moisture in the box....

 

it was for sure leaking coolant. If driven for more than 20 min it would leave fluid trails on the rubber floor. I had placed a white towel down starting under the hvac/box and it was green.
I had checked the drain plug when this was first showing signs of steam. it was dirty but not blocked.
on the overflow bottle when this first happened I marked the spot when cold. and after 3 1/2 weeks I lost about 3 inches. So I'm sure alot has either went under the flooring or is in the hvac/box.
if it went under the flooring I would never know since I have vinyl floors.
out of sight out of mind

 

Until the floor rots.

 

so the truck is back. Heat actually is felt now within 5 minutes of driving. very nice. New part smells. I can smell the new rubber coolant hoses. The A/C when its on acually smells nice. He cleaned out the HVAC/BOX and then blasted everything and the vents/doors with a cleaner incase there was mold. So I smell that also.

the one question is when you have to unbolt and drop the steering wheel and later re bolt it.
So now my steering wheeling is a little stiffer to turn but seems more solid also? Sorta reminds me of 40k miles ago when i changed out the rubber bearing thing on the steering wheel. stiffer and more stable with less slop??

would dropping the wheel during this and reinstalling , maybe shifted this rubber bearing?

parts replaced.
new heater core.
new complete A/C system
all new radiator and coolant hoses
new water pump
new belt