Green coloured liquid in passenger footwell! HELP - PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum

zakh · #1 05-19-2007, 08:24 AM

hi members,

over the last several months ive had a really funny smell in my car, ok its not me! lol
but seriously its almost like a sweet smelling fungus smell. anyway today i was cleaning the inside and i removed the passenger carpet lining and i found this dribble of green liquid...
my car is a 1990 190E with air con.
My question is, what is this and what do i need to do to solve it!??

many thanks in advance

brewtoo · #2 05-19-2007, 08:30 AM

It's engine coolant probably coming from the heater core.

zakh · #3 05-19-2007, 08:31 AM

ooooooooo sounds serious! is it?
do i need to replace the heater core...is it easy to do?

POS · #4 05-19-2007, 09:52 AM

Time for a heater core.

zakh · #5 05-19-2007, 10:50 AM

are u sure its the heater core or ac evaporator?

david s poole · #6 05-19-2007, 10:54 AM

depends on your definition of easy.it's a lot of work.you can put it off until you are ready to do it by shutting down the flow of coolant to the heater by either running a new hose from one side of engine to the other or use two pairs of needle nose visegrips[6inch]to clamp the hoses.now we have management by design and not crisis.

just-n-time · #7 05-19-2007, 08:46 PM

One way to know if it is coolant,are you putting any in the tank?

NDP 2.6 190E · #8 05-20-2007, 11:19 PM

Had the same exact problem 4 years ago, it was the heater core.
The amount of coolant loss will not be immediately obvious at the expansion tank, and a little goes a long way in terms of stinking out the interior of your car.

The job is not that difficult and no special tools are required, but it takes time and patience since the entire dashboard has to come out. Took me two days to complete, but only ‘cause I work slowly

and did not depend on the car as sole means of transport.

The workshop manual explains how to remove everything. The crucial part is to carefully label all fasteners, wires and connectors –some of the connector blocks are easy to miss-connect (don’t ask me how I know this!).
Once you have access to the heater box it is relatively straight forward to replace the heater core (don’t forget to also replace the two ‘O’ rings).

While I was in there, I also replaced the heater core feed and return hoses, the foam gasket that surrounds the heater box – as the original had disintegrated, and the dashboard bulbs.