How hard to change heater valve

[acarmody]

Hello all. I'm losing coolant slowly but still noticable , anywaymy mechanic showed me that my "heater valve" (thats what the gregorys manual calls it) has coolant leaking out of it. I'll attach some photos, no coolant in photos but I did see it at the mechanics. Anyway the parts fairly cheap from holden and my mechanic quoted $200 to change it, includes coolant change. But how hard is it to fix one of these? It looks hard to access being close to the engine and restricted access from the ABS lines.

Actually in the first photo you can see the stain left by the leaking coolant.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Zuicider]

its easy to do without those lines. once hoses have ben on there for a bit it can be painful to get the hoses off. try tightening the hoses first that may be all it requires

[Jesterarts]

When I changed the one on my VX... because it decided to crack the week before I sold it... there was ALOT of swearing involved...

It's a pain in the arse... but its not hard.... if you get what I mean... I think it took me about half an hour... and i also had to pull the broken bit from inside one of the hoses...

What was a pain in the arse was bleeding the system again... air must have gotten into the heater got and it took AGES for it to bleed properly...

Good luck!

[Fletch_QLD]

The guy at holden called it a 'heater tap' - same difference though. $50 for the part and $50 for new coolant. About 15minutes for a tooled up mechanic to replace. The brake lines get in the way a bit - but it's a simple case of disconnecting/reconnecting a few hoses. You could even reuse the coolant if you want to go povo.

I have done this job first on my VS and recently on my VX - about half hour max for a first timer, no special skills required

The tricky part - as already mentioned, is bleeding the cooling system thoroughly.

[acarmody]

Did you just bleed the system from the bleed valve on the top of the thermostat? So basically easy but annoying and make sure you have plenty of spare coolant?

[commsirac]

Was just having a look at this the other day. on my vx the whole heater tap and heater hoses connection thingo is just clipped onto the inside of the mudguard beneath all the abs stuff, it just all should pull away to make disconnecting everything there easy.

[banga]

the tap is held with plastic clips just pull iut away from the side of the bay to make it easier to work on , it should take 30 minutes if youve never done it before , and as they say , bleed from the thermostat housing on level ground

[acarmody]

Cool, thanks everyone for the help I'll give it a go on my day off.

I went to get my discs machined at my mechanic and while on the car hoist they let me under my car and I noticed that the transmission extension housing seal was leaking, the rocker cover gaskets were leaking and that this heater tap/valve was leaking, I'm like COME ON thats not cool, car has more leaks than a $5 prostitu.....never mind. This is the day after Bob Jane tell me my two back tyres need replacing at $260 each and on the same day my service reminder has come on. . Oh well Ruddies money will come in handy.

[commsirac]

the transmission extension housing seal was leaking, .

same on my vx, hasnt appeared to use any fluid yet.

This is the day after Bob Jane tell me my two back tyres need replacing at $260 each .

One reason as to why I stick with the standard 15in wheel and 205/65 tyre.

on the same day my service reminder has come on. .

ignore it!, or look up how to turn it off, its in the owner's manual.

[acarmody]

Ignore a service reminder, why don't you just ask me to cut of my arm? Not gonna happen with my car!! Every 10,000km my car will have a oil change, oil filter change, spark plug change, air filter clean, and a fuel filter change (not necessary but I do anyway).

[commsirac]

Ignore a service reminder, why don't you just ask me to cut of my arm? Not gonna happen with my car!! Every 10,000km my car will have a oil change, oil filter change, spark plug change, air filter clean, and a fuel filter change (not necessary but I do anyway).

You were complaining about the service reminder indicator????, my advice was to ignore it or turn it off.....I hope you realise simple draining the oil out of it and putting a new filter on it wont turn the reminder off.

[camstatic]

I like to drop my oil and change my filter every 5000 personally...

[acarmody]

You were complaining about the service reminder indicator????, my advice was to ignore it or turn it off.....I hope you realise simple draining the oil out of it and putting a new filter on it wont turn the reminder off.

Yeah I'm just bitching because all this has happened at once. I'll save money by doing the service, rocker cover gaskets, and the heater valve, myself, all seem like staight-forward jobs. As for the transmission extension housing seal, a local tranny shop quoted $80 to do the seal and an extra $40 to put a corvette servo in at the same time, I've had the servo sitting in the garage for ages.