Please don't make me ever do that again... I replaced my heater core today. What a pain in the ***. I managed to scrape my knuckles trying to get my dash pad back in. Oh fun... At least I didn't have to pull the dash. It still took a leisurely five-six hours though.

On a side note, my power locks and mirrors no longer work. Any ideas? I did kinda forget to disconnect the battery before unplugging and replugging the ECM... C'mon, good news please...

 

I attacked the heater core completely from the bottom when I replaced mine, no need to take out the ecm or dash, took under 2 hrs at the time for me. my only gripe was how stuck the hoses were to the old core. As for disconnecting the ECM while battery is in.. I don't think that would do much harm. Its like having a fuse blow or whatever, its been accounted for. You should just check to make sure you didn't disconnect any other wires while digging around and check fuses just in case you caused a short. If your ecm was truly busted, the engine would be f-ed more so than the windows, the data tables containing the fuel air mixture hold way more data than anything on the ecm.

 

I pulled mine through the bottom too, but I had to pull the dash pad and the right speaker for a little more access to the top screw. My hoses were stuck too but I cracked them loose weeks ago when I bypassed the core. Getting them on the new core was surprisingly tough (not much slack to play with). The ECM was just hanging on three wires slung underneath it for some bizarre reason (some idiot mechanic). After pulling it and it's cradle there was a lot more room to play with for the heater core shroud. It's all installed properly now.

The engine fired up fine; I didn't notice a problem until I went to lock it up for the night. Sp far I know the windows and the radio work, the mirrors and the locks don't. I'm going to go try the headlights and turn signals in a few minutes.

Offhand I don't think I disconnected anything else...

 

Okay, the power locks, power mirrors, fog lights, hatch release, horn, and the centre console light are all dead. The dome light may be dead too, I didn't notice. What do you guys think?

Hey another quick question if I may... When cold, where should the coolant level in the rad be? Mine seems to like sitting at about 1/4 to 1/3rd from the top when it's cold. Is that normal or should I be worried? If that damned stopleak was holding a head gasket together too I'm gonna be in such a bad mood...

 

Sounds like a fuse... either that or a disconnected wire somewhere. As far as coolant level goes, when cold, it should be at the full cold mark, and when hot should be full hot. Since you were messing with the heater core and fluid goes, the procedure is a simple one that I follow.

From a cool engine open rad cap and fill to top, close cap till its half closed start engine.

Top off fluid again while engine is running and replace cap at half closed once again.

Ensure engine is warming up well by giving it some gas. Also make sure temp setting is set to hot as to make coolant flow through the core. Ensure the overfill container has at least to cold full mark.

Steam will come out from the half closed cap but this is ok. Instead of forcing it out the overflow, the half open cap let's out the steam. If not, bubbles will flow out the overflow which is just fine. This is how to get rid of air in the system. If you have your own fan control switch for the rad, it'll make this so much easier. Get the temp up to 200 F or 105 C and then turn on fan till it drops to thermostat temperature, if not you will have to wait till the proper fan on setting for your car. What happens is the fluid expands and air will find its way out the rad cap/overflow. When cooling it, it can't suck back through the half closed cap, but will draw from the overflow like normal. This should be done at least 3 times. Its called boiling over and the reason it should be done like this is to make sure all air is out of system. If your overflow is well past full cold AND you've boiled over the system properly, you simply have extra coolant available, which is not a bad thing until you need that extra resevoir space. It's specially designed to handle the full amount of overflow of 225 F coolant mixture + a good amount more. The ideal level is the full cold when cold and full hot when hot on the overflow. Once boiled over, you can just add to the overflow to match the level. engine is hot? add till the coolant overflow reads full hot. full cold? add till the engine coolant level reads full cold. Air in the system will expand fairly quickly and cause premature boil over in the overflow and can if not removed create hotspots in the engine. Hotspots near gaskets are fatal to engines so its best to do a good boilover.

 

Ah, it was indeed a fuse. I'm surprised so many accessories use the same fuse. It must have blown before for the previous owner too, since I found another blown 20 amp fuse in the centre console. Naturally the only spare I had lying around is a 15 amp fuse... Lets see how long it lasts.

 

Just hope that the requirements on the system don't exceed 15 amps. That means if you use all that stuff at the same time and it doesn't blow, then you're all right.

 

It's all I had laying around anyway. If and when it pops I'll put the proper 20 amp fuse in it's place.

It's still weird that it popped at all. The only real drain on the system was the dome light, since the passenger side door was open for the better part of the day. Nothing else on that circuit had been used all day...

 

damn stupid bleeping, iditotic heater core.

 

Yep, that about sums up that day for me.

 

Ah, and to sum up the low coolant level issue I mentioned above, the fix appears to be a $7.50 rad cap (the one with the pressure release lever on it) from Canadian Tire. The level was a good few inches low in the rad when I put the new cap on. I added nothing to the rad and when I checked it after running and cooling the next day the level was right at the top, and it has been for about a week now.

In less than two weeks I had a shop flush my cooling system, replace my rad, and replace my waterpump... And they never once mentioned that a new rad cap might be a good idea (although they did want to charge me like $85 for a pair of rad hoses... pfft, right...). Well, no reason to go back there again...