Wonderful Pix / Tutorial........I did mine on a '99 Bravada last month. The only problem I have how, is the heat blowing only gets up to about 80 to 100 degrees from the vents (Defrost, Vent, and Floor). Everything blows through the right vents, controls work, new core re-flushed. I've changed the T-Stat (even though the engine always seemed to be operating at the correct temp (195-200ish). Not sure what to try next. Maybe radiator cap? Fluid is always full (though it's probably not diluted adequately) Bottom line, when it's 11 degrees outside, it's still cold in my Bravada when it only blows 80 degrees from the vent. I've confirmed the vacuum actuated doors work. The blend door actuator moves (by feeling the fitting on top of the electric actuator - turns); however, I'm not sure if the blend door is actually moving to the extremes. I did the fuse pull thing. Any suggestions?

I read that the control unit needs to relearn what the temp range is. The controller might think 80 is hot, for example. Apart from an actual mechanical or vacuum failure, you might have to take the battery off and have it relearn. That's the extent of what I know about it, since I couldn't find a procedure. I just started driving again, and it works good now. Before the replacement, it only blew hot air if I put the mixture dial all the way warm. If you find the recommended procedure (if there is one) please post it - I'd love to know what it is!

Thnx Adam, you are right. I installed the dash and hooked everything up. The heat is back and everything is working with no problems.

Baffling but true! One of these days when I can pull myself away from the rest of my life, I'll try to figure out by what magic the door plunger functions without wiring. But, for now, I'll just figure it has something to do with the incredible power of my mind asking the light to go on when the door is opened. Man, I'm sure going to be disappointed when I find out what totally explainable thing the engineers did when they figured this out.

Heater Core sucess...
 

First off I have to big a BIG thank you to adam for the "cheat sheet" .. I started mine today around 9am and finished around 4 pm... 7 hours and I've never done one before.. and had to run out fo a few parts.. but all in all its not that bad.. there are a few suggestions I would like to make for anyone looking to do this ..


17. removing the center console also applies if you have the bose stereo system ( like my gf truck does) try to do this before you drop the dash to make you're life a little easier.. also to disconnect the hvac control unclip from the "longer" black tabs... what looks like a small disc with a bunch of holes and hvac lines is what should come out... makes life easy

26. additional step... make sure your antenna clip is disconnected..( took a minute to figure out what was holding it..

29. ok well here I'm impatient... so after feeling around a bit and looking in the hole with a mirror.. I made a 2nd hole in line with the "worst bolt" .. which I took pictures of.. saving myself the aggrivation.. and then sealed it with metal faced "duct tape" I'm willing to bet doing this saved me 20 minutes and ALOT of cursing.. I used a 3/8" ratchet 6" ext+3" ext + 3/8" universal + 10mm deep socket.

If anyone wants the pictures I took feel free to pm me while I figure out how to get them posted on here for you.

AWESOME write up thank you...

Just wanted to say thanks for the replacement summary!

I did mine yesterday and it took me just under 10 hours to do. Big thanks for the heads up on the lower bolts you're supposed to get from the engine compartment side. I took a dremel and cut the plastic around them and it probably saved me 2 hours of time. Now it's all back together, fits perfect and works great. This summary was a lot of help. Thanks again :icon_goodpost:

Looks like I'm next on the list to replace the heater core. :(

You can do it! Hang on to the list, check out the pictures. Other than a couple of the bolts, (and you know where they are, even) it's not all that physically hard. Just label like a maniac, and check, not only the connections of wires, but also how they're routed. Planning to do it is much worse than actually doing it.

I just did the same thing with my hinge pins last weekend. I'd been putting it off for some time now. I bought the pins. Put it off long enough to lose them. Bought another set. They sat around. Then I bought the spring compressor (can't imagine doing it without it, by the way) and then finally dove into it. It took less than an hour, and was pretty much cake. Good grief.

Haha thanks. I've always DREADED taking apart the interior. I'll do anything thats gritty, dirty, greasy, heavy, whatever. But the plastic parts and all the little wires and pieces of the dash is just intimidating.
I'm about to order the replacement... and I'll have to tackle this memorial day weekend. I plan on using scotch tape and bits of paper to label the hell outa everything. The pictures are awesome too... so the laptop will be my best friend out there in the garage. :)

Quick question before I continue... if the foam is in bad shape, is it easy to find? I haven't found it on rockauto's website yet.

Can't answer on the foam, but I'll add this: the heater core replacement I bought was slightly different than the stock one. I was able to get the foam off of mine without much difficulty, but it was a very tight fit in the box due to the new shape.

However, my foam also was clean, and I think this is important. I was absolutely shocked that mine wasn't saturated, but my core had just barely started to leak when I replaced it. If it was soaked with antifreeze, I don't know I would have tried to reuse it. I imagine you can get this stuff at most decent auto parts stores or even a craft store. If I remember correctly, it's maybe an inch wide, maybe a quarter inch tall, and has sticky tape on one side. If you can come up with something similar to that, I'd use something off the shelf before reinstalling something wet.