Okay I know this was posted a while ago but i cannot find it. Today after my car sat in the sun for an hour I noticed a big puddle of antifreeze in the passenger side footwell. All over, probably a pint or so. I was told its probably a leak in my heater core. Does anyone have any knowledge of this? How much would it cost to fix it? Could it also explain why my car stalls out occasionally?

------------------
1992 Pontiac Firebird (stock)
- 305ci V8 TBI / Automatic Trans / Every option, excluding leather
- Killer car audio system:

• Aiwa CDC-MP3 head unit
• Rockford Fosgate 360a2 amp
• pair of 12" MTX Thunder 5000s in a custom box
• Pioneer 3-way 6x9s, soon to add more more more!

 

Actually happened to me.. Was getting in my car & there was a green puddle on the passenger floor.. Yes, it was the heater core.. I was told it would cost $250-300 to replace it, the core is only $25 but they said the dash had to be taken out to get to it.. At first I just cut the hoses under the hood & connected them together.. Now I have plugs installed in the intake & the water pump..

It never stalled on me when it happened though..

Hope that helps..

 

is it a do-it-yourself job?
God for 10% of the cost I'll spend as long as it takes to do it myself!

 

Not sure what is involved.. I never drive my car in the cold weather, so I just decided to bypass it completely..

 

Thats classic sign of a bad heater core. I wouldn't drive your car much until you can fix it. You are going to loose all of your coolant. The problem is that when the car warms up, the coolant goes into the heater core even if the heater is off, and until all of the pressure is off of it, it will leak it all out even if the car is off. You can either connect the two hoses that go to the heater core with a plastic connector and bypass it, or you can replace it.

Changing a heater core is about a 3 hour job depending on your mechanical abilities and how much crap you break. Do not buy the heater core from Autozone. I bought one from their and it was DOA. I put it in without testing it and it leaked worse than my old one did. Instead, get one from Advanced, or, anywhere but autozone.

To change it:
1. Remove battery - cable.
2. Take off top dashpad.
3. Remove the lower trim panel from the underside passenger side dash.
4. Disconnect the computer and set it in a spot where it wont get any more wet.
5. There are 5 or 6 hex bolts that hold the plastic heater box on. The top one is very hard to get to, I had to use a flexible socket driver and I had to break off part of the passenger side speaker mount to get to it.
6. Once you have the heater box cover off, set it and the screws aside. Try to remember how it had to be placed back on.
7. Use a good set of vice grips to remove the clamps for the hoses that go through the firewall. They will be behind and to the left of the dist. cap. These can either be A)plugged together to bypass the heatercore if you don't have one yet, or B) Put aside until you get the new one on.
8. With the clamps off, what I had to do to get the hoses off was "pinch" the ends of the hoses with a wrench so that the heater core pipe is basically crushed, then the hoses just pulled right out.
9. Now you can go back underneath the dash and take off the other black cover that is behind what you took off a minute ago.
10. With all the screws out for the brace that holds the heater core, pull it out slowly and diagonally. Once you get this out of the car you can remove the core from the mounting bracket.
11. Put the new core on the mounting bracket snugly.
12. Guide the copper pipes through the holes (do not force them if possible) and keep checking from the engine compartment to see where you need to go.
13. Once you have the copper pipes through the firewall, you can bolt the bracket back in place. If it doesn't line up with the bolt holes, then you don't have the core lined up right, keep moving it around. You will know when everything is lined up perfectly.
14. connect the hoses to the copper pipes, again, be careful. The sodering on these is very crappy and can damage them if you force the hoses on. They just need to go about a half inch past the ridge.
15. Put the clamps back on the hoses.

16. With the heater box cover off, connect the battery and computer, fire the car up and turn the heater on. Let the car get up to operating temperature and run it for about 5 minutes (make sure garage door is open). If there is no sign of coolant other than what was previously there, then you can shut the car off and put your dash and stuff back on. A good idea is leave off the top bolt on the heater box. If you ever have to work on it again it will cut time in half. That top bolt took me over an hour to get off and scraped up my arms bigtime.

This is a job that you should do when you can take your time. Do not rush through it because it is very messy and it is really no fun at all. You will save yourself at least $200, which is what I was qouted for a mechanic to do it. Dont forget to purge the system of air and fill it back up with coolant to compensate for all that you lost with this PITA.

Hope I helped you out some...

 

Thank you thank you

 

On the subject of AutoZone htr cores.... I got one from them for my daily driver Caprice. $19 good price. It was OK except it didn't fit in perfectly, a little loose, but it is currently working fine, no leaks. knock on wood.

 

Theres that plastic cover thingy over the heater core I cannot get off. Is it safe to cut off with a dremel?

 

1 I Jack,

<h1>NO!</h1>

Please don't hack anything with a Dremel. You'll never get a good air seal and wil almost certainly get moisture and debris in the passenger compartment. You'll also get hot air all year 'round - even when teh AC is on.

There are a few screws holding the heater case halves together that are at the top of the case. You can access them by either removing the upper dash pad and getting them from the top or removing the large bolt on the lower right corner of the dash assembly, then slightly flexing the dash panel rearward enough to get a ¼" ratchet and long extension onto the top screws. In either case, it isn't difficult, and will be faster in the long run. I can't imagine how much time it might take to try to reassemble and seal a hacked heater box.

------------------
Later,
Vader
------------------
"Let the bodies hit the floor!"
Adobe Acrobat Reader

[This message has been edited by Vader (edited June 27, 2001).]

 

That little plastic box surrounding the heater core? you sure? DAMNIT now how the hell am I supposed to get it off?

I was quoted for $500 at 10-12 hours of labor to have it replaced today.

 

(See above description.)

 

gah its right behind that plastic thing though, right?

 

My car had a home made access compartment under the dash, so I had direct access to the screws that hold the covering over the heater core from under the dash. The way the it was cut makes it pop back together easily.
Got an Autozone Core for $17 and installed it in about 45 minutes.


WS6 Trans Am.

View My Ride @ thirdgen.org

[This message has been edited by Zepher (edited June 28, 2001).]

 

Got the old heater core out and replaced the hoses running to it. That took me about 2 and a half hours due to not having the correct tools. And the radiator hose was stuck on the copper pipe real good, so I just ended up cutting it and replacing it.

------------------
1992 Pontiac Firebird (stock)
- 305ci V8 TBI / Automatic Trans / Every option, excluding leather
- Killer car audio system:

• Aiwa CDC-MP3 head unit
• Rockford Fosgate 360a2 amp
• pair of 12" MTX Thunder 5000s in a custom box
• Pioneer 3-way 6x9s, soon to add more more more!

 

Okay the hardest part was putting the hoses back on. Those damn clamps made me angry so I just swapped them from the other part of the hose. Those ones you tighten with a screw driver. BTW it takes two people to do this job, so i had my mom hold the heater core while i pushed the hoses back on.

PAIN IN THE ***

------------------
1992 Pontiac Firebird (stock)
- 305ci V8 TBI / Automatic Trans / Every option, excluding leather
- Killer car audio system:

• Aiwa CDC-MP3 head unit
• Rockford Fosgate 360a2 amp
• pair of 12" MTX Thunder 5000s in a custom box
• Pioneer 3-way 6x9s, soon to add more more more!

 

Congrats on a not-so-trivial job accomplished!! That ranks fairly high on the PITA scale in these cars. Now that you've successfully tackled that, maybe some of the other things that the car needs won't be quite so intimidating. Still in all, I don't believe that (and maybe a few more like it even) was worth 3 or 4 years of a car note, but what do I know....

------------------
"So many Mustangs, so little time..."
ICON Motorsports