heater core keeps going kaput

[Liszt]

Hello,

Recently I have gotten white air coming thought the a/c vents which my mitsu tech said was because the heater core was damaged and needs to be replaced. Since then they have probably replaced the heater core at least four or five times. Every thime after they replace the heater core, in a few months or weeks it happens again, the white smoke. They said they don't know what's going on, and will keep replacing the heater core forever because they can't figure out what it is. Ideas?

Doug

[BlueESV6]

Does it happen constantly with air on or only for a minute or two?

If your not losing coolant, I wouldn't worry about it.

Are they charging you for this or is it warranty item?

[Liszt]

Does it happen constantly with air on or only for a minute or two?

If your not losing coolant, I wouldn't worry about it.

Are they charging you for this or is it warranty item?

I'm going to go check and see if it continuous or just temp.

The stuffs under warranty so they do all the work for free.

D

[Liszt]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BlueESV6)</div><div class='quotemain'>Does it happen constantly with air on or only for a minute or two?

If your not losing coolant, I wouldn't worry about it. Â*

Are they charging you for this or is it warranty item?</div>

Ok, here's the deal. I've checked with mitsubishi and they've replaced the heater core four times since this last august. The heater core has gone bad again, white smoke from vents, and needs replacing. Does anyone have any idea why this may be happening over and over again?

Things mitubishi has done in addition to replacing heater core x times

1) pressure tested system
2) checked for electrical grounding/ossilation in cooling system to rule out electricity making problem
3) added special pellets to coolant
4) used mitsu genuine coolant to make sure using correct fluid type

The problem that keeps happening per mitsu is that a small pin prick size hole keeps happening in the heater core which slowly leaks cooland out of the heater core and makes the white smoke. I'm going to take it back for the next heater core replacement soon assuming that's what they find.

I'm thinking a few things may be wrong

a) rust inside the cooling ducts from my block is coroding the heater core
https://www.thegalantcenter.org/style_emoticons/default/cool.gif my thermostat is bad
c) my car stereo isn't properly grounded (grounded now to metal near lr wheel well)
d) ?

Any ideas would be helpful

Thanks,

Doug

[Liszt]

Well, Adam Bonilla at Fresno Mitsubishi says that my problem is an "electrolysis" problem

I found this guys page and he says that 90% of cooling problems connected to electrolysis are actually something else

http://pages.prodigy.net/crashh/_wsn/page4.html ('http://pages.prodigy.net/crashh/_wsn/page4.html')

so I'm like fucking shit fucking idiots, I have a 9/10 chance of this being something else and they're telling me it's "electrolysis," caused (!) by my aftermarket electronics parts which include

a) Viper Alarm
https://www.thegalantcenter.org/style_emoticons/default/cool.gif Speedhut gauges
c) Stereo system face
d) amp and offshoots
e) xm radio box

I installed 4/5 of these items so if it is electrolysis there's a 80% chance that I'm at fault

If the dude who says that 90% of problems attributed to electrolytic materials decomposition is correct, then there's a 10% chance that Mitsubishi is right and 90% chance that's is somehting else.

If it's both there's a 8 % chance that's is both within 10% margin and also 4/5 of the items I've installed myself.

Basically they have identified according to them that some aftermarket device is causing the coolant to become electrolytic and that's what is causing my heater core problems.

They have the heater core at a radiator shop for testing (?) and are going to get back to me further.

I want to know exactly what fucking aftermarket part caused this shit if that's true because it's either me or tweeter who installed my alarm who fucked up and admittidley it may be me. Or it may be tweeter who fucking grounded my alarm sensor to my radiator fan cable. DON"T DO THIS. Grounding shit to the fan power cable causes fucking chaos per my mitsu man in SD and also others I've heard from.

Peace,

L

[SilverDragonGTZ]

sounds like tweeter that grounded to your fan is a fucktard....go kick him in the balls....i dont know what of those devices would cause it...i have all those aside from xm...and nothing wrong with my heater...heh...if you didnt have the alarm installed wrong...i'd say take all the stuff you've put in there out....and tell mitsu its a lemon and try gettin a new car https://www.thegalantcenter.org/style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif

[Liszt]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(SilverDragonGTZ)</div><div class='quotemain'>sounds like tweeter that grounded to your fan is a fucktard....go kick him in the balls....i dont know what of those devices would cause it...i have all those aside from xm...and nothing wrong with my heater...heh...if you didnt have the alarm installed wrong...i'd say take all the stuff you've put in there out....and tell mitsu its a lemon and try gettin a new car Â*:lol:</div>

my fear is that it's really something I have done. I'm just guessing before based on the message the man left me from mitsubishi on my cell phone. I'm just pissed that this guy at

http://pages.prodigy.net/crashh/_wsn/page4.html ('http://pages.prodigy.net/crashh/_wsn/page4.html')

says

"About 90% of problems diagnosed as electrolysis actually have nothing to do with electrolysis."

So if that's true the guy at mitsus just giving me the run around instead of being honest. They said they would call in some engineer to look at it if mitsu got tired of paying to replace the heater core but they really don't fucking care, they really don't know what the hell's going on either, I could tell it in his voice on the message. This nigga doesn't know shit. Be honest so we can both come out happy.

:mg:

:peace:

[Liszt]

Well,

I've gotten over being upset at myself for fucking over my car if that's the deal. Adam at Fresno Mitsubishi said today that it's still in the works and that my radiator is still at the shop for testing ???

I asked him if he tested for a voltage in the coolant and he said that "Mitsubishi doesn't have a set level on that" and so I'm like well what did it measure and he was like "I don't know." So I'm thinking to myself did you even fucking check the coolant voltage and if so don't you know a lick about car problems. I've read online about this shit for a few days and I would remember or want to know what is up with the coolant voltage if that's the deal so I could tell my customers. So, it looks like my car is in the shop over the weekend for work continuing on Monday. I'm going to ask him what the mitsu spec is for electrolysis in the engine coolant electrolysis determinant procedure. If there's no set level how can they know if electrolysis even exists. I'm calling him right now.

[Liszt]

All right, I tried being nice to this guy to get an honest response out of him saying stuff like

"well, ok, so here's what I know, let me know what you know"

he basically was very determined to say that oem is the way to be and no modification are gonna kill my shop or my reputation and you need to figure out this shit on your own brother.

So, I guess it's up to me to figure out what's going on with my car. I told him that I found a web site online and that the guy works for the state of california and that he says that 90% of problems attributed to electrolysis aren't and the mitsu guy says tough luck. Basically the radiator shop are the experts here and what they say when they test the heater core goes. It may NOT be electrolysis

For clarification he says that it may (important) be electrolysis and that is what they think but based on what the radiator shop assigns to the failure of the heater core is the word.

Basically I would like to tell him in the future you either need to tell me you know or you don't fucking know. Don'e be like, "oh, we think." Fucking assumption gets you killed and make me think less of you for not being honest. Tell me we don't have a fucking clue and we sent your shit out to the shop because they know what's going on. Fucking leading me on like this makes me nervous moron.

[Liszt]

Well,

I finally got an honest response from Max at Carlsbad Mitsubishi and Adam at Fresno Mitsubishi. I called Adam today and he said the radiator shop determined my problem was caused by electrolysis by the sediment that collected around the piping of the heater core unitl. He said that when this happens electrolysis is present in the system. Max at Carlsbad mitsu said that he could have been wrong in the diagnosis of this problem when it happend the first time (in Carlsbad, CA). So, Adam was really cool and said that the heater core is probably going bad because the stereo system isn't grounded properly and that I should get the system checked out by a professional stereo shop to make sure that all the gounding and hookup is clean. He also recommended grounding any aftermarket part directly to the battery. Hope this info helps anyone who may have this problem in the future. Basically if I correct (ground all aftermarket parts to battery) my stereo setup and I don't see the problem again that was the cause. I will update in the future. I'm also thinking about the apex'i super grounding system (hyper grounding) to cut down on noise in the electronic system.

Later,

Doug

[Liszt]

Well,

I've been reading about grounding and audio systems and have found a good site http://www.audiobanter.com/ ('http://www.audiobanter.com/')

Basically what I'm going to do is rewire the ground on the amp to the middle seatbelt (if it will stretch) and ground the amp there, tightly and sanded to bare metal

Ground the head unit and the xm box to a point under the right front seat, common ground, sanded and tightly bolted

Rewire and check the speedhut wiring

Then check all the fuses to make sure they are all ok since I've had some gauges sputter out.

That's it. If my heater core comes back bustin I'll know I did my part in making the ground solid.

L
------------------

Notes



What a consideration is weather your car has a unibody frame or a regular frame. I think trucks have a regular frame and a car (galant) has a unibody frame. With a unibody frame grounding to the frame cuts the grounding potential per my readings. Which means if you have a sedan do the best ground you can. Basically there is no rule of thumb for grounding. If you install your amps in your trunk ground to a point in the trunk. You can also run a cable = to the power in ga. to the neg. battery terminal. When you do this the cable becomes more of a ground device than the frame under a short ground to the chassis. You can successfully run a ground cable from your amp to your battery if a local ground does not work. The advantage of grounding locally is to save money on cable and because a local ground utilizes the body/frame more than a longer cable to the battery (which uses the cable as part of the ground). I've read that increasing the ground gauge from the battery to the ground point in the engine (I think a block in a 99 galant) would possible increase the grounding quality.

To measure if your ground is bad up do this

http://www.audiobanter.com/showthread.php?...ound+multimeter ('http://www.audiobanter.com/showthread.php?t=1387&highlight=ground+multimeter')

[Liszt]

Well, still wating to get the car back. Adam at Fresno Mitsubishi told me that the car would be ready today but he lied and didn't tell me the truth. Fucking piece of shit.

[Liszt]

In reterospect I shouldn't have said what I said about Adam Bonilla. I really don't know him and he has been nothing but seemingly fair.

The heater core was replaced and I haven't had any venting problems since (white smoke through vents).

I reworked all the electrical accessory grounding to the factory ground locations. The amp before was not grounded to factory ground. It was grounded using one of the screws attached to a plate that is about 4 inches below the left rear strut tower. I would not recommend grounding anything there.

The heater core was replaced like I said. He said there was a voltage found in the coolant. I don't remember the voltage level, but it was above spec. This may have been caused by an improrper ground whose ground was not so solid thus transferring energy through the coolant and ionizing the fluid, causing the metal part of the heater core to deteriorate causing thus several pin hole size leaks in the heater core body. I would recommend using only the factory ground locations in the future for any in cabin or anything electrical ever anywhere in the car. Once I reworked all the grounding for my extra stereo stuff, gauges, and etc. to the factory ground locations I have not had any problems with the heater core acting up. This may have been the cause of the heater core problems I have been having but we can't be for certain.

There are two I believe factory grounding locations in the cabin. One by the foot rest on the drivers side, look to the left above the trim piece and you will see the ground location, screw with a black sheathed copper wire running off it. There is also a ground location by the in cabin overhead lights under the headliner. In the trunk there are two ground locations, one on the left side of the trunk and one on the right side of the trunk. These are found easily when pulling the carpet back (I don't have any in my trunk) and looking about the place where the extra support cardboard looking fiberboard (masonite) things are screwed into the trunk bed area. Again, it's a screw with a wire running off. I would agan say that if you install anything in a 8g you only use the factory ground locations, which I believe are only two locations in the cabin and two in the trunk.

I used to have the service manual on CD, and there's a file called factory ground locations which is a PDF file on that cd. Use those groundings. There seem to be many in the engine bay. I even grounded my head unit running a ground wire under the drivers carpet to the ground location near the trim piece and foot rest.

Again, I have not had heater core problems since this time. I have not had the coolant voltage retested.

There were a few problems though when I received the car back, the alarm didn't work, the cruise control wasn't working, the air flow direction control didn't work (I only now have front 4 vents at every control knob direction), and the two vents over the head unit slot were out of their socket. I haven't taken the car back yet to get those problems fixed becuase I am nervous about mitsu service in a way and I guess I have a trepid fear about them touching the car and breaking something else. Maybe this feeling will change in the future. The fresno mitsu service has a bunch of awards on their wall and and at their counter for excellent service (most I've ever seen at a mitsu dealership). Perhaps my problems was isolated. I can understand through seeing as you have to take the hole dash off to get to the heater core that any unusual electronics (aftermarket) would be compromised since the techs. don't really have a necessary requirement to know how to hook them back up. I'm thankful I haven't had a problem since with the heater core. If anyone reads this in the future and has heater core problems pm me and I'll tell you more if you want.

L

04/28/2005