The other weekend when I did my LIM job, i took of the tensioner assembly. I had to replace it with a new one and when I was transferring all of the parts and bits from the old tensioner to the new one, I tried to remove a beige colored plastic piece from inside of the lower heater hose connection.

Well i should say that I tried to remove it and it disintegrated into bits. It looked like a filter or junk catcher of some kind so i just assumed that it wasnt essential. The car is running great, but is that there to prevent gunk from the heater core from returning to the motor? Should I try to replace it or just continue living in ignorance?

Did you get a picture? Did you keep the pieces?

I'm wondering if what you had there was a deposit of sludgy Dex Cool crud (or the remains of a stop-leak pellet).

No it wasnt that. This was a formed plastic piece that was pressed in to the lower metal tube coming off of the tensioner assembly.

Sorry I did not save the bits or get a pic of that.

On a side note, i had to turn the heat on in my car today..a truly novel experience.

If you want help on this forum or if you want to help someone, the most useful thing you can do is take pictures. Have a camera in the garage with you anytime you work on your car. Pictures are truely worth a thousand words.

OK, here'* my next guess...a broken-off bit of a previous plastic coolant elbow. Was it ring-shaped?

I ran into the same problem. I got one from the junk yard for 2 bucks. Rock auto has them for $13.68. It is called a Heater Control Valve.




From what i heard it is needed. I don't know how it works but i guess it controls the coolant flow.

azu- no that is the other end of the hose that attaches through the firewall to the heater core. I am talking about up where the hoses attach to the tensioner assembly. I really should have got a picture of it, but i was in a hurry. Took lots of pics of the LIM job though

Sounds like a coolant elbow. The part of showed goes into the heater hose.

nope not a coolant elbow either. the only coolant elbow on my motor goes between the LIM and the tensioner assembly

This might help..i dunno