I just picked up my old college car, from my brother who said, "it stopped working"..

I open the hood and see what looks like some sort of 'by pass' job that doesn't look right..

Check out the arrows. There appears to be a hose that was added coming out from the engine and going back into it..

2 hoses were cut and not attached to anything..

 

It looks like the heater core started to leak and someone installed a bypass hose. Can't really tell becasue the pic won't enlarge for me. What year is that car?

 

It's a 1996 V6 3.8

Those 2 hoses that are cut, if I remember, used to connect right where that hose goes.

 

Yes, that looks like what they have done is bypass the heater core. One of the hoses coming from the heater core could have had issues. A new set of those hoses run around $180 at the dealer and that is the only place I know to get them unless you luck up and find a used set from a salvage yard. I had a link on an alternative way to repair that but now when I click it, I get an alert that the link has malicious content on it. It is posted in a couple links on this site if you search for it.

 

If the heater core itself is the problem, replacing it isn't a difficult job. This came as a big surprise to me when i read the replacement instructions. I expected the whole "discharge the a/c system, remove the dash" thing but that isn't the case.

 

Thanks for all your responses!