My step-son's 97 A4 quattro (V6) was losing coolant badly a few months ago, so we parked it for the winter. Trying to diagnose it now... I refilled it, put the front up on ramps to help bleed out the air, and it seemed to stabilize. But then I noticed that coolant is pooling in the rear seat footwell on the passenger side. I do see a small drip under the dash in the glovebox area also. Does it make sense that a heater core leak could be causing this? Also, how much of a chore is it to replace it, I assume some major instrument panel dis-assembly is needed?

 

Yes. First, there is nothing in the back seat with coolant in it. Second, there are vents that travel under the carpet and end under the front seats. The coolant probably ran down one of those ducts and puddled on the back floor.

Pretty big job. You don't have to be a genius. You just need to be very methodical, take some pictures and label a lot of plugs. Here's what one of mine looked like by the time I got to the heater core:

 

Thanks.. What sort of manual did you use for this? I would think it needs to be done in a certain sequence...

 

I have a Bentley. But I also relied on a couple of DIY write ups. This one is particularly good, but if you google it you'll find more.

AudiWorld Tech Articles