How to - Heater Core Removal and Hoses Photos Thread

[smokin_vx]

Hi guys just a few pix of my heater core / system overhaul i did a few days ago.

Special Thanks to "Thumpin" for his help!! Cheers Mate

Before I start Please note that i was quoted $1,600 + Parts from an Air Con Repair Shop and $3,000 + Parts from Holden in New Zealand to have this attended too. I am not a mechanic but do have a knack for tearing things apart.

Tools you will need:
1 x Socket Wrench
1 x 10mm Socket
1 x 20cm - 30cm socket extension bar
1 x Phillips Screwdriver
1 x Neednose Pliers
1 x Disassembly Instructions supplied greatfully from Thumpin.

NOTE: If you can put together a kitset computer desk then this is no different, If you cannot then find someone who can! Follow the instructions and keep a mental not as to what screws go where.

Tip: I found that remembering that the screws with a point go back into holes with the plastic retainer plug and the flat end screws for into metal only holes.

I am not going to explain much as it is just really dissasembly and is self explanatory.

Here we go....

Step One - Remove Dash Fascia (Surround)



Step Two - Remove Lower Right Dash Under Steering Column







Step Three - Remove Glove Box and Centre Console Side Panels





Step Four - Remove Dashboard Cover

Note: 5 Bolts at the base of the windscreen and dash you will need your Socket Wrench, 10mm Socket and Extension bar for this as it is very tight and hard to work with.

You should end up with this...





Step Five - Remove the Passenger Airbag Support Bars and Remove HVAC Bolts

NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE DEGASSED THE AIRCON UNIT BEFORE COMMENCING FURTHER!!

NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU HAVE FLUSHED ALL THE COOLANT OUT OF THE SYSTEM BEFORE COMMENCING!!

In this step you will need to remove the Passenger Airbag support bars, a few bolts and screws.

Then you will need to disconnect any air ducts, which they should just pull off.

Next you will need to pop your engine hood. MAKE SURE YOUR A/C HAS BEEN DEGASSED SAFELY. Mine was already degassed luckily.

You will see five bolts along the firewall you will need to un-do these as these are what anchor your HVAC unit inside you car. Also you will need to unscrew your A/C pipes from the firewall by unscrewing two small star screws and a bolt this is located on the passenger side on the firewall in the engine bay. Now un-do the heater core pipes. if you cannot undo like mine just cut them with scissors and replace them.



Once you have unbolted the HVAC unit from the firewall, jump back inside the car and slide the grommet down as shown below and remove the HVAC unit.



Once removed it should look like this now..





Step Six - Remove Heater Core and Replace

The heater core will just slide out from the HVAC unit where you can now slide in a new replacement unit. I replaced mine with an aftermarket brass one which was $100 cheaper than from Holden.







Step Seven - Replace heater Tap with New One

Since my Holden had a redirected heater system i didnt know which component was at fault so but assumed it was expensive as they opted to redirect that to repair. There are only three compoments really - Heater Core, Heater Tap Valve & Hoses. I replaced all three for good measure while i was in there

***PHOTOS TO COME***

To install the hoses and heater tap is very easy. Just undo all the hoses and remove the heater tap, replace heater tap and attach new hoses exactly how it was before.

Step 8 - Double Check all clamps and bolts etc.

Check all hose clamps, bolts and screws are secure so we can now refill the coolant.

Step 9 - Refill Coolant

Refill Coolant as directed.

Step 10 - Wipe down before test run.

Wipe down any water spillage on hoses so when you test the car you can see if anything is leaking.

TURN HEATER INSIDE CAR TO HIGH AND FAN ON FULL. NOW START THE CAR. ONCE CAR IS RUNNING BLEED THE COOLING SYSTEM USING THE BLEED VALVE AND TOP UP COOLANT AS REQUIRED.

Once you have done that you're all done.

PS: Will be adding extra photos soon.

I hope that helps some of you guys and saves you some hard earned money at the same time.

Good luck and hit me up if you get stuck.

Special Thanks to Thumpin
Make sure you bleed the cooling system also while you are testing.

If any of you guys would like to add anything further please do

[Dan_VX_Spac]

Top effort. My brother in law and i did mine i was quoted $1100. All it took was half a day and a $100 part to fix.

[smokin_vx]

thanks mate! Well worth it to do it yourself aye i spent a total of $450 $270 for the core, $50 for the tap and the rest on hoses and an extension bar.

[wrx884]

Good effort on the write up man mayb if i spent a lil more time i could have helped as i did mine a couple weeks ago, i got quoted $900 4 the lot (cheapest) but instead got a heater core $110 (brass 1) and coolent $45 myself so all up costed me roughly $170 all up coz i needed water 2.

1 thing i might add theres an evaporator unit also inside the HVAC unit (right next 2 the heater core) make sure u blow that out clean and dont get any water inside the unit as thats bad apparently. Give the HVAC unit a good wipe out also helps get rid of that musty coolent smell 2.

All up tho i had 1 dam screw left over haha did u have many or any?

[VYMAD]

Yeah awesome write up, handy to know, thanks!!!

[HARVZ-6]

great work mate!

will deffinatly be using this in the weeks to come

[DVS]

Nice work, thanks for the pics. I wish I never have to do this, ever.

[smokin_vx]

Good effort on the write up man mayb if i spent a lil more time i could have helped as i did mine a couple weeks ago, i got quoted $900 4 the lot (cheapest) but instead got a heater core $110 (brass 1) and coolent $45 myself so all up costed me roughly $170 all up coz i needed water 2.

1 thing i might add theres an evaporator unit also inside the HVAC unit (right next 2 the heater core) make sure u blow that out clean and dont get any water inside the unit as thats bad apparently. Give the HVAC unit a good wipe out also helps get rid of that musty coolent smell 2.

All up tho i had 1 dam screw left over haha did u have many or any?

Yeah seems that Aussie is far cheaper than NZ! Hmmmmm, i think i had 2 screws but im sure they are for the diagnostic plug which is still dangling around under my feet!! I was thinking that same thing when doing mine.. hope i dont have any screws left over!!

[frustrated]

Thanks for the write-up and photos, great job.

I did mine on the weekend, it's a VT but almost identical to the VX. $120 for a brass heater core, about $40 for coolant, about $11 for hoses, $6 for the four o-rings in the air-conditioning connector, + $200 for A/C de-gas and re-gas. The whole process took about 8 hours I guess, taking it slowly and giving everything a good clean. Not too difficult, and you end up with a useful pile of nuts and bolts left over at the end

I followed the instructions in the Gregory's manual (for the VT), which are mostly OK, but not quite right in a few places. It told me I had to take the steering wheel off, which I did, but then made the mistake of starting the car (to test that everything was working before I put the dashboard back in) without the airbag connected, and this causes the airbag light to come on and can only be reset with a Tech-2.

I tried to find some replacement foam to put around the heater core to seal air-leaks, but couldn't find any at Holden Spare Parts or Auto-One. So I left it out. It's nice to have a heater again, without the smell of coolant.

Oh, one other problem I had: for some time I had noticed that the heater tap wouldn't turn off when I rotated the temperature setting fully counterclockwise (cold). It turned out to be a vacuum valve that is activate by a ramp on the back of the temperature control dial - the ramp wasn't quite pushing the valve in far enough - missing by about 0.5mm. So I used some epoxy resin to build up the ramp (after drilling a few holes in it to give the epoxy something to grip onto). This worked fine.

[vbtruk]

I need urgent help!!! I cant seem to remember at all where this one bracket goes, it is pictures in the 3rd picture down on the floor, the z shaped tube can some one help, thanks.

[frustrated]

I need urgent help!!! I cant seem to remember at all where this one bracket goes, it is pictures in the 3rd picture down on the floor, the z shaped tube can some one help, thanks.

It goes from one of the two large bolts immediately above it in the photo, up into the dash, to the left of the steering wheel.

[vbtruk]

great, what does the other end connect to? the steering wheel end?
Thanks

[vbtruk]

found it thanks, just behind where the cluster goes, no wonder i could'nt see it, there was two of us pulling it apart so i didn't see al of it. anyway thanks, that was the only thing i had trouble with.

[dazza33]

Must say i did mine the weekend before last and it was a piece of p!ss. Started on the Friday avo round 3.30pm and by 10pm i had removed the dash, pulled the old heater out, replaced the core and put the heater and the top of the dash back in. By 12 midday on the Saturday she was all done. A couple of things i learn't i will pass on:

1) I got a replacement core from a Radiator place, when i went to put it in i found the replacement was about 1" bigger in width. I was able to grind out the core compartment in the heater to suit but i got a bit nervous there for a while.

2) Take it out in stages and take your time, draw diagrams etc. Believe me the extra time you use to take it out will pay off.

3) You need to make sure you have the adequate tools, one of the reasons i found it to be a relatively easy job is not that i am a genius but because i had a full compilation of the required tools.

One question i will ask is, what is that thing that sits in the middle of the dash just where the top of the dash meets the bottom of the windscreen. It looks like some sort of sensor?

Cheers, Daz.

[wrx884]

Must say i did mine the weekend before last and it was a piece of p!ss. Started on the Friday avo round 3.30pm and by 10pm i had removed the dash, pulled the old heater out, replaced the core and put the heater and the top of the dash back in. By 12 midday on the Saturday she was all done. A couple of things i learn't i will pass on:

1) I got a replacement core from a Radiator place, when i went to put it in i found the replacement was about 1" bigger in width. I was able to grind out the core compartment in the heater to suit but i got a bit nervous there for a while.

One question i will ask is, what is that thing that sits in the middle of the dash just where the top of the dash meets the bottom of the windscreen. It looks like some sort of sensor?

Cheers, Daz.

Good 2 hear u got it sorted easy enough man feels good 2 do somthing like that yaself 2

not sure y u had 2 grind stuff out mayb u got given a different heater core thats 4 another model?? mine was the same size as the old 1 only a brass 1.

Ur right its the sensor 4 the central locking im pretty sure another sensor is there 4 climate and the auto function 4 ur headlights.

[blueV8vl]

this is a good guide ive done this today in a WH stato super 6 was a fun job lol

[mattcooper]

Hey Guys
Im doing this BS project now thats a pain but anyways Im waiting for my heater core to arrive. Before installation do I prime it with coolant first then install?

Thanks for this guide btw

Matt

[wrx884]

Prime the heater core u mean? na u shouldnt have 2 as wen u go 2 fill up with coolent and uve got the heaters on full the coolent will run right through the whole system.

[justformonkeys]

I was wondering... instead of pulling out the whole dash... has anyone thought of just cutting the hoses in the engine bay and putting a new heater core somewhere in the engine bay and leaving the old one in the dash??? will the heater core work being in the engine bay??
just wondering because there is a fair bit of room in the engine bay and all i would have to do is get some longer hoses and hook it up to the heater tap etc.

Has anyone done this?

cheers

[ausrs]

heater would not work if you bodged up a radiator in the engine bay !!!!
I did this job last weekend to replace evap core (leaking ) none of this job is hard ,it is just time consuming and tedious BUT way better if your ac and heater work ,i would suggest to anyone that pulls the dash out ,spend the extra money and replace both the heater core AND the evap core so you never have to do it again !

[justformonkeys]

heater would not work if you bodged up a radiator in the engine bay !!!!
I did this job last weekend to replace evap core (leaking ) none of this job is hard ,it is just time consuming and tedious BUT way better if your ac and heater work ,i would suggest to anyone that pulls the dash out ,spend the extra money and replace both the heater core AND the evap core so you never have to do it again !

im not saying just bodge up the radiator, just cut the 2 pipes going into the firwall and put the heater core in the engine bay... so your only replacing the heater core nothing else

[ausrs]

in doing so you would have a heater core in your engine bay ...........what would that achieve ??? a warm engine bay ??? would not help getting heat inside the car !

[50LTRv8]

Awesome write up , rep given

[wrx884]

im not saying just bodge up the radiator, just cut the 2 pipes going into the firwall and put the heater core in the engine bay... so your only replacing the heater core nothing else

The fan blows on the heater core which in turn wen certain doors/flaps r open in the Hvac unit, it alows the heat 2 go where its intended 2 (in the cabin lol)

[schrinky]

SWEET someone has done this and put it up, ive really should do mine cause it smells lovely :P when i put the heater on!! now at least i dont have to pay someone 1000+ to fix it....i can do it myself!! THANKS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH!!!