Smoke/steam from the AC vents

Lunchmoney

The Torque Meister
Points
497
Location
Uk
Car
'98 JDM Impreza STI
During a 6 hour drive home from new year's party there was a bump in the road. Don't know if it was related but shortly after the windows started fogging up. (It may have been a coincidence but worth mentioning as I can't over the timing.)

I had to pull over, on the hard shoulder, to wipe all the windows down and try to figure things out. I couldn't find or think of anything. We carried on trying several settings on the blowers and occasionally wiping the windows again. Eventually we settled on the AC on, temp just off the coldest and air blowing at the window only. This seemed to stop any further misting, but nothing was clearing, unlike normal when I put the AC on and can watch the screen demist in a matter of moments.

No other problems; engine was running fine and engine temp was normal, heater was still pumping warm air if I turned it up, but we had to keep it cold to keep the windows clear.


Fast forward to today. I check the engine bay - can't see anything wrong, can't see anything leaking.
I go for a drive and can see smoke/steam coming from the vents when I turn the fans off (when the fans are blowing it must have been moving and dissipating too quickly for me to see). It doesn't smell of anything.

A cursory google search suggest heater core is kaput.

I'll be heading to my garage after work tomorrow and may get this fixed quickly or may have to wait until the weekend (or whenever they can fit me in). Just thought I'd share to see if anyone had any thoughts and/or suggestions.
 
Could just be a bumped compressor hose causing a loss of coolant. I fear it may be the heater core but it is really hard to tell until you get the thing open and try it out.
 
First thoughts from my mechanics is the heater matrix. They are going to do whatever it is they do and test these things to be sure. If it is then it's a 6-8 hour job to take the dash apart to get at it.
 
8 hours thats guna cost. Is it that important i had an old cavalier that i just cracked the windows down an inch on
 
All done and picking it up tonight.

It was the heater matrix and my garage had fun getting a new one.
They tried Subaru UK first of all (seems sensible). They can get one but it be about £400 and will take 4-5 weeks coming from Japan. err.... no thanks.
They checked all the cars they are currently breaking - none of them had a working and compatible heater matrix.
They phoned around and found a radiator dealer in Portsmouth who had an OE new unit for about £50 delivered. Quite a difference from Subaru for the same unit.....

All in it was about 10 hours work and is costing me a little more than I hoped. But these things must be done.
 

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