Bypassing Heater Core

88GTsocal

New Member
Oct 30, 2004
23
1
3
Las Vegas, NV
Well I'm fairly new to the mustang family (bought my first about 2 months ago) and I have a question. My heater has never put out any sort of heat, but since the temp gauge never climbs past the L on NORMAL, I figured the previous owner removed the t-stat. I live in southern california, so the ambient temp is certainly high enough for the eng to get hot. Well, tonight I was poking around under the hood and I saw that the heater core had been bypassed. The heater hose from the engine just looped back onto the engine. my first thought was that the heater core probably had a leak. My question is if there is any other reason why someone would bypass the heater core. I dont want put the heater core back into the cooling sys loop and have a big mess of coolant inside the car. I'll probably have to replace the heater core, I just want to make sure theres no other reason why it would be bypassed. Thanks in advance.
 
It's probably a leaker, heater cores aren't that expensive, but where you are they probably aren't a necessity either. But if you plan on doing any road trips, then it could come in handy. I'd fix it, they are a pain in the butt if you have A/C though