Heater core

[psychotic46]

Anyone no how to change the heater core in a V6 VP commodore?

[Morton]

like so:

[psychotic46]

Hahahahaha Good Burn! please be joking

[Ranuip]

I was told that you have to take out the whole dash.......? Gotta be an easier way though. Mine started leaking late last year, so I just by passed the heater tap etc so no coolant was leaking into the drivers aide footwell. Gonna have to get it fixed before summer comes along though.

[psychotic46]

OHHH FML i dont wanna do that lol

[GRPABT1]

That's pretty much it dude. If you wanna cut and shut copper pipes with some hose and clamps (dodgey in the cabin) then you can get it out with the top dash in place.

[psychotic46]

would it make a diff if the engine was out of the car, like in an engine exchange cenareo...fingers crossed

[Morton]

Not really. Here's the problem:

1) the pipes from the heater core protrude two inches FORWARDS through a very small hole in the firewall
2) the heater core is very firmly wedged in the climate control box, and can only be removed SIDEWAYS

Attempting to pull the pipes back can't be done, because the heater core won't move back in the climate control box
Attempting to pull the heater core out of the climate control box can't be done because the pipes won't move sideways in the firewall

In my first picture you can clearly see the complete climate control unit (dead centre beyond the gearstick). You must remove this too, in order to replace the heater core properly.

You CAN remove the OLD heater core without getting everything out, but you WILL break it.
You can NOT install a new heater core without breaking it also

In fairness though, once the dashboard is out, it's REALLY easy. Five screws and you can tug the whole climate control unit back from the firewall, and do your thing.

[Staggie]

What they all said, just did all of the above last weekend. Worst part was having to get the ac de gassed and re gassed.

Took about 7 hrs start to finish.

[Morton]

Go hard, son

Seven hours - that's a bloody marathon efford. Hats off to you ^_^ I did it over two days.

[agrsv8]

can be done without taking out all that, just bend the heater core pipes slightly and bend them back once its in. Only took 30 mins

[psychotic46]

Ok i understand now, MAAAAAAAAAAAAN!!! how hard can it be to take the dash out tho? like time consuming yeah but its just like hundreds of screws right? Has anyone had the issue, every stupid problem to have ya have, like wheel bearing change...no split pin, or heater core change hole dash out

[Staggie]

It would be lucky to be 30 screws I reckon.. Isn't too hard (once you figure out where all the screws are)... I know what ya mean tho, bought the hsv, 2 days later drivers floor with a nice puddle of coolant..

[psychotic46]

Wait what? i plummed mine back up properly and it didnt leak i drove it 30+ KMs and then when i stopped it leaked alot but not in my car, like i couldnt see the leak but i wasnt wet in my car it was leaking out side???

[hi_ryder]

ill be doing this to mine next weekend... do you have to let the AC gas out?...

[vps231]

I gave my gf dad a hand doing her mums festiva afew weeks back, What a c#nt of a job and my vp needs to be done soon

[kezzaj666]

I did mine a few months back thought no way am i paying $1600 to the mechanics to do this,read up loads on it seemed easy enought...F####k man i understand why they charge that took me from friday arvo till sunday night to get it done,bugger of a job was pretty proud of myself though once back together...went and got is gased up the next day and guess what shhhhhhh bloody leak sumwere can hear gas leaking out so guess who has to pull it all out again and try find the leak...ME thats who..not happy...lucky i left a heep of them silly fidly hard to get screws out just incase...by the way im a girl so if i can do it with a fair bit of jack daniels and a bit of anger language anyone can!!!!

[m62vpute]

It still never ceases to amaze me with the heater core placement. It seems like holden got together and made the decision to build the whole car around the heater core and just figured that by the time the cores start leaking the cars will be way out of warrenty and wont be there problem

[hi_ryder]

i cheated.... i bent the metal brace down with a hammer to get some more room to pry the box open by hand. i just undid the screws around the rim and did my thing. saved me from taking the whole unit out and re-gassing the AC. worked really well, i had my missus push down on the other corner while i pried open the driver side of it and slipped it right in... then i bent the brace back to shape and put the 10mm bolts back... took me about 8 hours all up and that was with a couple of breaks in between...

[Circlotron]

I wonder how many of these cars got junked because the heater was the last straw?

[m1lky]

To be honest I'd just bypass it. Full dash out doesn't seem worth it to me.

Wonder if you could whack an electric heater in three (by the fan) and rig the temperature dual up through a variable resistor...

Come to think of it why don't the manufacturers do this.

[Circlotron]

Because the normal heater produces about 5kW of heat that would otherwise be wasted out the radiator, so free, kinda.
To make that much with 14 volts needs 5000/14 = 357 amps.
That's a big alternator.

Maybe you could suck hot air from around the exhaust like they did in old VW Beetles. Gets hot quick smart.

[hi_ryder]

I wonder how many of these cars got junked because the heater was the last straw?

from the ones ive seen at pick a part they get junked for less than that....

[m1lky]

Because the normal heater produces about 5kW of heat that would otherwise be wasted out the radiator, so free, kinda.
To make that much with 14 volts needs 5000/14 = 357 amps.
That's a big alternator.

Maybe you could suck hot air from around the exhaust like they did in old VW Beetles. Gets hot quick smart.

Good point. Didn't think of that. Haha then with time you get carbon monoxide in the cabin as it rusts out instead of coolant.

[Shearer]

i cheated.... i bent the metal brace down with a hammer to get some more room to pry the box open by hand. i just undid the screws around the rim and did my thing. saved me from taking the whole unit out and re-gassing the AC. worked really well, i had my missus push down on the other corner while i pried open the driver side of it and slipped it right in... then i bent the brace back to shape and put the 10mm bolts back... took me about 8 hours all up and that was with a couple of breaks in between...

That's exactly how I did my VN. Saves stuffing pulling out the HVAC unit.

Although I unclipped the entire wiring off the dashboard and took it out -probably wasn't necessary.