hi everyone, its been a while, but now i've got a problem. was driving home from work yesterday and smoke started coming through my vents. I got home and saw coolant dripping off my the passenger side mud flap. Today i phoned a shop and they want 150 for the core and 520 for labour, sound reasonable? my friends dad offerd to help if it wasent a pain in the *** to get to, and i read that theres some trap door of some sort to gain access to it....
I work out of town and need it running asap. all opinions and comments welcome

thanks
Adam

 

How much for labour an hour? I hope that was $520.00 in CA funds. $350.00 US would be reasonable. (not sure of todays crate.) Keep that rad topped off b 4 you drive her.

good luck.

 

ya, thats 520 canadian, is the core pretty hard to get too? like under the dash?

so i wont hurt anything driving it? i read that it could explode and splash coolant all over under my dash.....true? would be nice to have wheels till i get it fixed [&o]

stupid jimmy.........maybe its time to go get me a celica [:@]

 

Ok. You can bypass the core for now and reroute the coolant to go back into the block. Just disconnect the lines from the firewall an deither install a fitting w/ hose clamps, or a whole new line. Just be sure to get the core replaced b 4 winter. Or it'll be a bit chilly.


Can you see if there is any wetness on the interior near pass side?

Driving w/ no coolant will hurt it. GM designed it to be cooled by water, oil and air. If it pees all the coolant out park it. Air in the system along w/ Dexcool will speed up the oxidation of things.
The core is located behind some plastic pass side against the fire wall. Some plastic cutting wil have to be done. Get a repair manual from the parts store and it'll instruct you exactly what to do.

Might as well flush what you can out and install a new t stat and rad cap. There is a purge vent to get the air out of the cooling system when the job is done

 

I believe that a pretty much complete removal of the dash has to happen inorder to replace the heater core. If you run a search I think someone posted pictures of their dash dismantled in the process of a heater core replacement.

Good news for you is that the A/C system does not have to come apart like it did in my old '97 Ram.

 

ahh gawd how fun was that Kyle?

 

I didn't do it. I got a more than reasonable quote for a shop to do it. I think I ended up paying $225 TOTAL!!! And that was with a $75 heater core. Lets just say I didn't even think twice. I also didn't really have the time to be doing it either. It was the middle of winter and I couldn't make the heater work!!!

 

$225.00 was a great price for someone else to hassle w/ it. Even w/ the partial A/C removal you got a good price for the work.

 

yeah the dexcool stuff just kills the heatercore, i wish they didnt put in there, i need to get mine replaced, but i used the crap you stick in there that seals cracks but i will eventually have to replace it

 

Yes this dash has to be completely removed to do this repair. If yours is a 95-97 model year ONLY the dash has to come out. Then you take the heater-core cover off and remove the heater-core. If it is a 98-2004 the Dash, and the right front inner-fender have to be completely removed in order for the heater-core case to be removed to access the heater core. This repair pays us technicians 10.5 hours of labor in the 98-04. The 95-97 pays 5.8 hours. THERE ARE NO ACCESS PANELS TO QUICKLY REMOVE THIS IN EITHER STYLE SO DON'T LET SOME YAHOO CUT UP YOUR DASH!!!