Hey guys, I am swapping my heater core out this weekend, and I am having some problems. I've heard this was an easy job, (hour or less), and just to pull the passenger side panel cover off, take out heater core, disconnect hoses from under hood, and thats it. Well, I went and bought a Haynes Repair manual, and it says I have to pull out the center console, the steering wheel, dash, and some other stuff???? Has anyone taken out there heater core before? I can't get the black case off of the heater core, because it has 3 bolts at the top of it, but is it really necessary to pull dash/center console/steering wheel to get the bitch out?

 

yes when my grandfather did it for me in my 1988 iroc-z camaro 5.7, he pulled the whole front dash out to change heater cores, and then a week or 2 later i wrecked my car and i pulled the heater core out again. it took him hours, lol i love my pops

 

I thought this was a one hour job when I start this "project" last year. It ended up taking about 7 hours, partially because I had to start over to "undo" my shortcuts. Though some people on this site claim to have been able to do this without dropping the steering column and pulling the dash off the cowl, I can't see how that would be possible with my specific car. I have to assume that there are some internal differences under the dash between years/models.

Do yourself a favor, if you are part way through and it will be getting dark within the next 4 hours, call it a day. I ended up putting my car back together in the dark because I got a late start. That only made it harder.

Good luck.

 

On my '86 all I had to do was remove a small black panel under the passenger side dash. About an hour job. Put some towels down on the floor as more coolant will leak.

 

I did it without taking my center dash apart. I have really small hands, so I was able to work with those top bolts, and i took the big black thing out. However, it actually would have been easier had I just taken the whole dash apart. It took me about 5 or 6 hours on two days to do it.

Not a fun job at all.
Do it the right way the first time...
Jon

 

If your car is an 82-86, than it's an easy 30-45 minute job since oyu can go through the bottom on the passenger side easily. Not sure what the differences are, but cars later than 86 require a bunch more work to get to it.

 

okay, i have a 92 bird. It took me all day yesterday, but I finally got it done. I just pulled the the dash and everything out.

 

that was the easiest way.....it really sounds a lot worse then it is...i cheated though, power screwdriver

 

power screwdriver how dare you, lol

 

On my brothers 86 firebird it only took about 45 minutes to do the whole job...
changing the core,running car and topping off coolant etc...
i have not had to do it on anything else yet though...hopefully my 90 will be as easy when i need to do it.

 

well my 1988 took many hours, so i would suspect that your 90 would take hours also, i would hate to see the bill for labor if i took my car to a mechanic to fix it!!! ..

 

u do not have to remove the steering column. i did mine myself and it was a b****. first u gotta remove the center console... then the cover to the gauges and the headlight switch handle, then the gauges, then the radio and anything that will block u from reaching the bolts near heater controls/radio, then the crashpad on the drivers side, then just keep messin with bolts till u get the dash to slide forward. i painted my dash pieces when i had everything out. then to remove the hoses... i found the easiest way is to cuz them if they dont slide off and replace them. watch the heater pipe though cuz u dont wanna break that. also, make sure that the hoses are tight otherwise u'll leak coolant all over ur new carpet like i did anyways, if u need more detailed instructions email me... camaroguy72@aol.com

 

Just don't try to change the heatercore on the 80's F*rd Tarrus cars damn they're a bitch to do. This was taken after I packed it up for the night lol