Is this a heater core problem?

2001 Ford Taurus is leaking antifreeze from front passenger side, you can smell antifreeze blow through the vents, the heat and air sometimes don't work, air blows warm air/heat blows cold air, car over heats, temp gage will drastically fluctuate, windows won't defrost sometimes, and you can see antifreeze outside splashed on the windshield a little bit.

It will run normal and within 30 seconds be running super hot, then go back to normal, then back up to hot again. Water pump was just changed last year.

How much to fix this?

2001 Ford Taurus is leaking antifreeze from front passenger side, you can smell antifreeze blow through the vents, the heat and air sometimes don't work, air blows warm air/heat blows cold air, car over heats, temp gage will drastically fluctuate, windows won't defrost sometimes, and you can see antifreeze outside splashed on the windshield a little bit.

It will run normal and within 30 seconds be running super hot, then go back to normal, then back up to hot again. Water pump was just changed last year.

How much to fix this? Yes this will defiantly be the heater core.

My advice would be to stop using the car all together until it can be repaired as it can be very easy for the engine to run out of coolant and overheat-if this happens things will get very expensive as it can warp the cylinder head.

If you have no other option but to keep on driving please keep a close check on the water in the radiator before you start driving.

And please remember never to remove the radiator cap when the engine is hot or the hot coolant can rapidly escape and cause severe burns.

If you want to check the engine to see if it has suffered a warped head from overheating remove the engine oil filler cap and the engine oil dipstick and see what color the oil is. The oil should not have a mayonnaise like appearance to it. If the engine oil starts to look like mayonnaise this indicates coolant has leaked into the engine oil due to a warped cylinder head. Then refit the oil cap and dipstick back on to the engine afterwards.

I'm not sure how much it will cost to repair as it depends how much other damage has occurred. Kop TROLL ALERT
Copy of an 8 year old question

TROLL ALERT
Copy of an 8 year old question