Hi all,

thought I could smell coolant when driving my Series 1 the other day, so
I pulled the floor mat out of the right-hand side and noticed that one section was saturated.

There's a slim chance that one of the heater hoses has split or cracked but my money's on the heater core being the cause of the leak.

I plan to pull it out myself, should I be terrified at the prospect or is the job not THAT hard? Hoping for a miracle but not at all confident.

Any tips on what to watch out for? I'm seriously thinking of disconnecting it and doing it over summer. I've got enough on my plate with replacing the rear trailing arm bushes and both rear wheel bearings.

 

Haven't done it myself, but it sounds like a pain:

http://www.jag-lovers.org/xjlovers/x...heatercore.htm

Also, do a forum search on jaglovers for more info if needed.

On the Series 3 it is common to cut the metal tubing and slide the heater core out to avoid taking the dash entirely apart. Then rubber hose and clamps are used to install the new core. Pictures in the following link, don't know if this works on S1 cars.

http://forums.jag-lovers.org/av.php?1386048l49

 

Thanks for the links.

This car's in Australia so it's a right-hand drive.

Odd thing is, I pulled up the carpet on the right side transmission hump. It was wet down the bottom but dried out further towards the top.

I've disconnected it anyway and will get it tested before I go pulling it out or buying a replacement core. It might be a leaking windscreen for all I know.