Thread: Both heater hoses are cold. Radiator hoses are hot though

Originally Posted by snj111795

Okay guys, so my uncles heat is cold as ice. He's driving a 02 Le Sabre. So I go take a look at it and the only visible problems I saw are that his coolant elbows are leaking a little bit, that's no problem easy peezy. So we have the car on for about 15 minutes with the heat blasting on full and I go and feel the heater hoses and they're are stone cold, but the radiator hoses are hot. I take a look at his coolant and it's at the right level but it's as murky as pond water. So I ask what's he been putting in the coolant and he whips out dollar store green coolant. So fellas, is this a case of a clogged heater core or heater hoses? Is a coolant flush the most logical solution, along with replacing coolant elbows and tstat?

Sounds like the DEX-COOL and green coolant mixed and clogged up the heater core. You need to get that car flushed ASAP so more passages don't get clogged up. This could turn bad soon. And fill it up with green coolant after you completely flush the system.

cores air bound, flush it and leave its hoses full of water, put em back on, heat will then work fine. the leaking elbows may have helped air get in the core.

Originally Posted by snj111795

Thanks everyone! We just went and picked up some aluminum elbows and new tstat and fluid. We're gonna work on it sometime next in the next couple of days. I'm sure if we run into any problems you'll hear from me again! Again thanks everyone who reached out

I hope you bought green coolant. DEX-COOL is worthless and will only give you problems in the future. Filling your system up with conventional green coolant (ONLY AFTER YOU DID A COMPLETE FLUSH) will be much better to maintain and not worry about.