my coolant warning light keeps coming on, and i've noticed that there is coolant dripping from the passenger side front footwell... i've looked in the engine bay, but there's no evidence of leaking

any ideas ?

not good news im afraid
It is most likely your heater core leaking, which requires R+R Of the dash and heater box to replace.

Well that sounds like a costly pain in the a***...

thanks for the info mate.

It's actually not as big a task as it seems though. Surprisingly enough it doesn't take that long to remove it all.

is coolant only supplied to the heater box when the heater is on ?

i.e. if i don't use the heater...i wont get leakage ?

apparently it's going to be around $1000 for someone to fix it for me, perhaps it's time to start looking for a BA/BF...

You could always just bypass the heater core all together, cost you probably $10 for a joiner and just connect the inlet and exit heater pipes together up near the firewall.

Give up on the heater and simply connect the two pipes together on the engine side of the firewall. You'll spot the two cooling pipes going in (and out) of the firewall between the windscreen washer bottle and the intake manifold. They'll be stuck on REAL good, so try whatever you like... Grab them just out from the metal underneath with vice grips and twist back forward and hope for the best. Alternatively - Don't even bother --- Just simply get a sharp knife and cut them as close to the metal pipe that sticks through firewall from heater box. Then you can find a bit of pipe and jam into each open end with some hose clamps to hold it all together. Easy really.

When you have the time available, go pull the dash out of one at PICK-A-PART or some wreckers where you can go with your tools and pull things out yourself. This will give you practice at how to butcher a dash and will show you how to get a heater box out.

I hate doing heater boxes --- Make sure you have a long reach 10mm socket and various 10mm spanners and a decent ratchet spanner set if available as the five or six 10mm nuts holding the box to the firewall can be awkward. If I remember correctly, there is one hidden behind the aforementioned windscreen washer bottle and one hidden behind the rocker cover. The rest are easy to stop -- A threaded stud about an inch long with a 10mm nut on the passenger side of the engine bay.

You should possibly have the dash out and the heater box in your possession in about two hours or maybe three if you're like me and take time discovering all the little things you hadn't noticed before --- like the position of the airbag computer and its centre switch/trigger.


Tell you what --- See if you can find a wrecked Fairmont (or higher model) and do the whole climate control conversion thing. You need the whole heater box and control system from a Fairmont to make it easy...

Reason for doing it?

The buttons and LCD readout are oh so more sexy than the Futura's great big old dial controls...

Just got mine done for $500 in Bayswater

Mate in Warrmambool said he could do it cheaper.

Asked a Taxi Repair Place that use to do it and they said $500 is about right

Remove Dash - Stuff that - not a big job lol

Just as an outside chance - check the hose clips in the engine bay are done up or tight.
Might save you a bit of grief, but sounds as mentioned.
At least checking the clamps is reasonably easy and not too time consuming.

Hello, How do I bypass the heater in an EF please?
I'm a real novice so the heater core is way out of my league but any tips on just the bypassing in an EF will be greatly appreciated - Thank You

It was just explained above.....

Jack car up and look on the passengers side of the fire wall 2 heater hoses entering the cabin. Remove clamps from firewall end and take both the hoses off the pipes. Cut these hoses to required length that allows them to be joined with a 90 degree plastic "L" pipe (can be sourced from repco).
Alot of the time its hard to get to the hose clamps on the firewall end so its just easier to cut the hose and leave the ends coming out of the firewall until you have the engine out next time and then they are easy to access and remove.

Its really simple. Just make sure you drain the coolant into a bucket before you go pulling off these hoses if you want to retain the coolant to re use. Other wise rip the heater hoses off and go for gold...