You are installing the second heater core under your ownership.
1997 Jetta GT 2.slow
What a miserable job. Especially when VW/Audi had a history of bad heater cores.
Step 1, disassemble the entire car.
You are installing the second heater core under your ownership.
1997 Jetta GT 2.slow
What a miserable job. Especially when VW/Audi had a history of bad heater cores.
Step 1, disassemble the entire car.
In reply to Noddaz :
Uh...I put 7 in my 9C1. But that might have been the E36 M3 Vatozone quality rather than longevity of ownership. (12yrs, in case you wondered.)
Noddaz said:You are installing the second heater core under your ownership.
1997 Jetta GT 2.slow
What a miserable job. Especially when VW/Audi had a history of bad heater cores.
Step 1, disassemble the entire car.
Isn't it the Volvo that starts with the heater core and they build the car around it?
The Acura Vigor requires you to remove the rear seats in order to get to the blower motor.
spitfirebill said:Noddaz said:You are installing the second heater core under your ownership.
1997 Jetta GT 2.slow
What a miserable job. Especially when VW/Audi had a history of bad heater cores.
Step 1, disassemble the entire car.
Isn't it the Volvo that starts with the heater core and they build the car around it?
LOL. At least the entire dash which takes 2 days to replace if you are dumb enough not to take the front seats out first and you wind up with a handful of unused screws and clips. And unless you are talking about 140 and later cars.
I've never done a heater core that I enjoyed.
I'm glad I live in the South.
I get by with nothing but seat warmers in my daily driver.
Speaking of heater core...just 6,500 miles
I have a ram Promaster City as a company vehicle. It had just 400 miles on it when I got it. Now, a few months later it has 6,500 miles and that is when the heater core decided to start leaking. It was at the dealership 1.5 weeks for warranty repair.
It was a strange event. Mid day I started to smell something not realizing what it was. It wasn't until a few hours later that the red light came on the dash for HOT. It was then that I realized the smell was coolant. I should have realized it earlier but I think the "new car-ness" kept me for thinking of it. Oddly, open the hood and other than the empty reservoir, there was not sign of coolant leak. No "coolant mist" on everything under hood like is classic with a bad hose. No coolant on the passenger floor. And, the big one, no coolant leaking under the car, no puddling while it sat.
I drove one block to an Autozone and picked up a gallon of 50/50. Filling the reservoir 3 times got me through the next 3 hours of the day. When I got home I got out the floor jack to get a better look. As the front end went up, I could hear the water rushing.
In the picture above, the car is being jacked up and the puddle forms rearward of the driver's seat!? Odd.
The whole bottom of the van is plastic under tray. The coolant would leak and get held by the tray. This is why there would be no puddling under the car. It wasn't until you accelerated forward that all the coolant would rush out the rear end of the under tray.
In reply to spitfirebill :
Yep, they suspend the heater core in mid-air on the assembly line, then start adding parts outward from that point.
buzzboy said:I've never done a heater core that I enjoyed.
GMT400 trucks are a joy. 7mm nutdriver to unbolt the access panel from the bottom of the HVAC case. Two easily accessed hose clamps under the hood. I used to do them in the parking lot without even bothering to pull them into the shop.
How hard could it be?
I have never done one, but the cars were designed to be assembled rapidly, surely they can be disassembled rapidly? A few bolts on each side, a few in the middle, a couple connectors, and the dash comes out, no?
I was looking into what it would take to do the heater core in an FB, and the only dash pull info that I could find was a writeup by someone who removed the cover from the frame, then individual components.... No no no. They did not put it in the car that way. Dash all comes out as an assembly, and really you don't have to remove it, just shove it out of the way...
ALLDATA is bad for this info too. They assume "dash frame removal" is dash frame REPLACEMENT so they have you undoing a bunch of stuff that you don't need to do. Like the equivalent of removing a transmission by disassembling it in place.
My 1991 F250 take about 45 minuets to replace the heater core.
I guess all vehicles can't be like that.
In reply to Noddaz :
About 15 minutes for my Quantum. There is an access panel on the side of the case.
Replacing the heater core did not make the heat better. VWAG sourced the 2.2l five's heater core coolant from the block, not the head where the heat is. Having the blower motor underhood (I think) probably did not help.
I had just gotten out of my Golf that you could roast a turkey with the heat from its 1.8, so I was expecting a bit more from a larger engine.
20 min job on an '84 Mustang, remove the dash on an '86 - 15 hours labor......guess which one I had? I bypassed the heater core and sold the car......
Big Audis are also notoriously bad on this job too.....
It's fairly easy on a classic Mini, haven't had to do one on my 14 year old modern MINI but changing the thermostat on the modern car MORE than makes up for it by being an absolute bitch kitty!
In reply to MiniDave :
R50/53 looks really easy. Dashboard has a single bulkhead connector. Two bolts on each side, a few in the middle, unbolt the steering column, and the dash frame comes out. Then the heater box is right there.
I assume on a classic Mini the procedure is to feed the dog that breathes in your direction? 
spitfirebill said:Noddaz said:You are installing the second heater core under your ownership.
1997 Jetta GT 2.slow
What a miserable job. Especially when VW/Audi had a history of bad heater cores.
Step 1, disassemble the entire car.
Isn't it the Volvo that starts with the heater core and they build the car around it?
When I was a youth, I could do a 240 blower motor in 40 minutes. Heater cores could be cheated out in a couple of hours. Cheated.
The old Mercedes sedans from the 60's were hellush, apparently. Gut the car, including all the dry brittle wooden trim...
In reply to Cousin_Eddie (Forum Supporter) :
Astro van without AC takes about 5 minutes. Easiest heater core I ever did
The one in my 1990 E250 took me about an hour.
I can seriously see that the first part of the interior that went into the bare shell was the heater/ac box. 4 metal studs bonded (?) onto the heater/ac box and those studs protrude into the engine compartment. With nothing in the interior and nothing in the engine compartment it would be easy.
Jerks. 
Non-AC fox body mustangs are a 20-30 min job. Remove heater hoses from engine bay side. Remove the screw on the cover just below the lower edge of the dash and remove. Install reverse of disassembly.
Put in ac and then it becomes a dash pulling affair because of the evaporator changes the horizontal heater core to a vertical one buried in the box....
I don't mind pulling a dash as long as it isn't a zillion screws, individual connections, and having some stupid ass console that requires removal.
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