I have an air bubble in my heater core.

I've been dealing with this since the frame was replaced. I hear it if I am starting off slowly. I do not hear it on the highway. It has been a couple of weeks and I was hoping use would push it through the system and out. It has not, any suggestions on what I can do to remove it?
Thanks

 

Are you having any issues with overheating? Park your truck slightly uphill, pull your radiator cap and run the engine until your thermostat opens, then top off as needed. This should solve it.

 

Park uphill slightly. With coolant cold, add coolant, replace cap, go for drive.

Repeat until air gone. Easy.

 

I thought the same thing. Do you hear it on the passenger side or general dash? Mine was an a/c line that "was leaking", I assume they pulled it and it started leaking.. Replaced, Evac, and refill and my noises are gone.

 

How did you diagnose that was what the noise you hear was?

I'm not saying it's not. But I will say it's more likely to be something else.

 

I say it's in the heater core due to the fact I hear it when parked. The trucks 3 weeks out from a frame swap and I heard it later after I picked it up. And, I've already dealt with the A/C drain hose issue. Different sound all together.

What do you think it is?

 

You could try this

Lisle 24680 Spill-Free Funnel, Standard Adapters, 11 x 7 x 7"es

http://www.amazon.com/Lisle-24680-Spill-Free-Funnel/dp/B00A6AS6LY

 

Dunno. If it's a bubble, it should be very easy to solve in the fashion others have mentioned. And since it's free, certainly worth a try. I've always heard of air pockets in cooling systems, just never have had one.

Any chance when you hear this the vehicle is running and the AC is on? Expansion valves make odd noises when they operate sometimes.

Is the AC working ok? Since it had to be opened for the frame swap, it's another area subject post swap issues if not handled well.

 

My air bubble was the result of flushing the coolant at 50K miles. Zerex Asian went in. Easy fix.

 

Honestly air bubble should be gone pretty quickly, what year is your truck? Early 05-06 are prone to head gasket which would do the bubble in core.

 

It's an 06 dclb 4wd 4.0. At present, 225162 on the odo. No steam other than condensation when it's cold. After an hour of stop and go traffic, the scan gauge still reads 180°, and the pod gauge doesn't move once it gets to temp.

I would have thought the bubble would be gone by now myself but I still hear the water running through the pipe. Driven a few hills, haven't parked on one. The coolant reservoir was over full when I picked it up from the frame swap. Makes me think they know it was in there.

 

Haha, you a funny guy. It's still, kinda, winter here in the Northeast.

I want the warmer weather now with the mild winter we had here. I wanna be on the boat. Not quite speedo weather here though.

 

This. Love the heat.

Come say hello if you haven't already: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/new-england-b-s-thread.204874/page-3897#post-12117717

 

I get it. It's why I'm grateful my parents moved to Florida over 60 years ago.

So, doesn't the AC engage in the defrost setting? Again, not saying that's what it is, just exploring possibilities.

 

I have no idea if it does other than everything(fan on hi, max heat, and defrost) maxed out. I rarely ruin max heat. Pointed to 2-3 o'clock and it's more than enough.

 

I hope this is not head gasket, but I would consider this a possibility. It could be super early stage. You need to do leak down test when engine is cold and when engine is warm.
Bubbles from core would escape pretty quickly, but persistent bubbles usually means engine is spewing something into coolant line.

 

Thats signs of a head gasket, heater core is highest point in the cooling system. It making the bubbling noise is a huge indicator.

 

I hope it's not a head gasket either. Not losing any antifreeze though. It's not mis-firing, spewing steam out the exhaust. Maybe it's time to pull the plugs and put a radiator cap tester on...

It's not a bubbling noise I hear. Sounds more like a forced hot water boiler system with air in the radiator. You can hear the water flowing. I only hear it when starting off or parked and giving it a little throttle

 

Unfortunately that is a symptom of a head gasket. My ranger did the exact same thing, so i know exactly what you mean unfortunately. Head gaskets are common on the earlier tacomas. Sorty dude but start planning on pulling the heads off

 

Shush you. Lol
Wouldn't I be losing antifreeze? My temp is steady at 181° and the over flow bottle is still over full from the dealer with the frame replacement.

I drove around with a loose radiator cap and found the steepest hill near me and sat for a few. Several sustained revs above 3k and about 10 minutes sitting... Tightened the cap and went home. I'll find out in the morning if that did anything to purge the air.