Ok people, I just got done doing this so the process is still fresh in my head. I may leave something out or make a mistake, feel free to comment and make corrections. I'm no expert, just a regular guy who is fairly handy with a decent set of tools. I wouldn't steer you wrong on purpose though so if I make a mistake PLEASE correct it. I'd hate to have somebody else get stuck because of something I wrote.
RANT! Skip this next paragraph unless you want a bit of an entertaining read and some background on me, your author.
I'm originally from PA, I grew up there, spent 21 years of my life there, 19 in the SE in Lancaster and the last 2 in Erie. Erie, is right on Lake Erie. The city experiences what is known as "lake effect" weather. What this means is that it gets @$$ cold there and snows a lot. What I'm trying to say is that I undertand the luxury, no, the necessity of heat in a car. I hate cold so when I graduated from college I moved my butt to the South and haven't looked back. Cold sucks, plain and simple. My hatred of cold drove me to change my heater core as well as write this. I hope it serves you well.
GOOD STUFF BEGINS HERE!!!
So here it is, the heater core is a dinky radiator that hides within the deep dark places within the dash of your car. It is connected directly to the coolant system of your car. The coolant in the system is hot under normal conditions, around 180F or so. As air passes through the heater core it gets warmed up and then blown through the HVAC plumbing and out the vents and we have heat in the winter to thaw frozen windows and stuff.
A heater core typically fails by springing a leak such as mine did. When this happens you'll get coolant leaking into the car which has a sweet smell to it. It's hot too and can burn your foot. This leak eventually lowers the coolant level and the car overheats. The diagnosis is pretty easy, now for the fun part.
If, in the event that the heater core fails it can simply be removed from the cooling system of the car. This is done by bypassing the heater core with a solid loop of hose. The fix is painfully simple but the downside is that you get no heat.
WHAT YOU"LL NEED TO BEGIN!!!
A good set of metric sockets with .25" & .375" rachets.
A set of metric box end wrenches.
Vice grips & pliers.
Some type of service manual, Haynes, Chilton, or a Ford factory manual.
Coolant drain pan, same thing is an oil drain pan basically.
A set of ramps makes it super easy, but a jack and jackstands work just as good.
A power screwdriver is super helpful too but not necessary.
A magnetic screwdriver with a set of driver bits that includes TORX bits.
Rags for sweat, tears, car fuids, and blood.
TO BEGIN!!!
Disconnect the negative lead to the battery. Give the system a couple minutes to drain down.
Pry off the bezel around the HVAC controls.
Take out the screws on either side of the center console trim that holds the HVAC controls and the radio. Do the same with the screws for the console piece that holds the shifter.
Taking out the seats may provide you more room to work but I didn't bother. I'm a pretty big guy and I got by with contortionism. This is your choice though.
Unscrew the shifter knob and take that trim piece out.
Take out the screws that hold the HVAC controls on.
Pull out the ashtry and take out the screw directly behind where the tray sits in the console.
Take out the radio if you can, you'll need a special tool to do this and I didn't have one. It isn't necessary but makes things easier.
Pull off the kick guards down underneath the dash on either side of the center console.
On either side of the heater unit there are white plastic cams with cables attached to them. These cams operate the paddles within the unit to adjust where air gets vented to, dash, floor, defrost, etc. Remove the ends of the cables from these cams. These cables are tied directly to the HVAC controls.
Now pull the HVAC control unit out until you can unhook the wire connectors in the back. Once you get those loose pull it all the way out.
If the radio is still in you can now get to the connectors in the back of it. Unhook those and take that out too.
Unhook the connectors for the cigarette lighter.
Remove the console.
Remove the trim piece to the right of the glove box.
Take out the passenger dash vent.
Take off the glove box.
Unhook the hood release lever from the trim. There was a nut hidden on the backside of mine and it took me forever to figure out how to get it off.
Take off the trim piece below the steering wheel.
This is optional, but you can take off the airbag for safety since you'll be screwing with the steering column. To do so, pop off the little round caps on either side of the steering wheel. Take out the bolts under those caps. Unhook the electrical connectors. Take out the airbag. BE VERY CARFUL with it and sit it somewhere out of the way and FACING UP. It can open and cause serious injury while being handled or if dropped.
Remove the trim on the steering column, top and bottom. 3 screws are on the bottom piece and clamshell around the steering column.
Unhook the little lignition light by twisting it and pulling it out.
Take out the bolts holding the steering column to the dash.
Lower the steering column.
Take off the instrument bezel.
Go under the car and unhook the speedo cable from the top of the transaxle. This will create slack to pull the instrument cluster out.
Pull out the instrument cluster and unhook all the cables in the back.
Pry off the triangular sail panels on either end of the dash.
Pull off the L shaped HVAC tubes on either side of the heater unit. These are right behind the radio and HVAC controls on either side of the heater unit like bull's horns.
Now the fun begins...
Take off the long black trim piece right at the edge of the window on top of the dash. There is ONE screw in the most idiotic spot right in the center. I had to put a TORX bit in it and turn it out with a pair of needle nose pliers. Once that is out, pry the trim piece up and remove it.
The dash is held in by 11 bolts.
3 along the edge of the windshield that were under the vent trim piece you just removed. These are the worst. Take the end ones out with a box wrench. The middle one you should be able to get a socket on, if not, use the box wrench.
4 under the triangular sail panels on the ends of the dash, 2 on each side.
4 at the base of the center console bolting the dash to the floor, 2 on each side.
Pull the dash free far enough to unhook all the cables and then pull it out.
VIOLA!!! The HOLY GRAIL IS WITHIN SIGHT!!!
Take out the heater unit.
Take the cover off from over the inlet & outlet of the heater core.
Pull out the old heater core being careful not to destroy any padding that may be around it. You'll want to reuse this. Do not use a hard insulator around the heater core or you may damage the new one putting it in.
Put in the new heater core.
Put the heater unit back on being careful not to smack the heater core tubes as you slide them through the firewall.
Put the dash back in and hook all your cables back up. Make sure your HVAC tubes get aligned correctly and that you aren't pinching any wires before bolting it back in.
Bolt in the dash.
Replace the trim along the window. I left that annoying screw out when I put it back on.
Replace all the trim pieces in reverse order of how they were taken off. Be careful to hook all your wires back up to the HVAC controls, radio, guages, light dimmer, etc. Also don't forget to put the hood release back on.
When reattaching the HVAC cables to the cams on the heater unit pay attention to where the cams are relative to the position of the control levers. Just mess with it for a bit and you should be able to figure out what goes where and how it works.
Hook the battery back up and get the front end up off the ground on the ramps. The car should start and run as it did before if you did everything right.
Put your coolant drain pan under the coolant hoses on the back side of the engine.
The heater core should have had a cap on one tube, leave this on. Unhook the bypass and attach it to the uncapped heater core tube. Tighten the hose clamp. Run another hose from the engine to the other heater core tube. Tighten the hose clamps. It helps to put the hose clamps on the hose before attaching it to the tubes in both cases. The factory clamps are one piece shoot metal rings. Compress the tabs with a pair of vice grips to loosen these, then release them where you want them over the tube ends.
Pour the coolant back into the overflow canister for the car.
Wash away any spilled coolant with plenty of water from a garden hose or a bucket.
You're done, enjoy the heat!
I have pics that I took that need to be hosted somewhere. I'll post a link to those later.
Thanks, be safe, and good luck!
[/b]
RANT! Skip this next paragraph unless you want a bit of an entertaining read and some background on me, your author.
I'm originally from PA, I grew up there, spent 21 years of my life there, 19 in the SE in Lancaster and the last 2 in Erie. Erie, is right on Lake Erie. The city experiences what is known as "lake effect" weather. What this means is that it gets @$$ cold there and snows a lot. What I'm trying to say is that I undertand the luxury, no, the necessity of heat in a car. I hate cold so when I graduated from college I moved my butt to the South and haven't looked back. Cold sucks, plain and simple. My hatred of cold drove me to change my heater core as well as write this. I hope it serves you well.
GOOD STUFF BEGINS HERE!!!
So here it is, the heater core is a dinky radiator that hides within the deep dark places within the dash of your car. It is connected directly to the coolant system of your car. The coolant in the system is hot under normal conditions, around 180F or so. As air passes through the heater core it gets warmed up and then blown through the HVAC plumbing and out the vents and we have heat in the winter to thaw frozen windows and stuff.
A heater core typically fails by springing a leak such as mine did. When this happens you'll get coolant leaking into the car which has a sweet smell to it. It's hot too and can burn your foot. This leak eventually lowers the coolant level and the car overheats. The diagnosis is pretty easy, now for the fun part.
If, in the event that the heater core fails it can simply be removed from the cooling system of the car. This is done by bypassing the heater core with a solid loop of hose. The fix is painfully simple but the downside is that you get no heat.
WHAT YOU"LL NEED TO BEGIN!!!
A good set of metric sockets with .25" & .375" rachets.
A set of metric box end wrenches.
Vice grips & pliers.
Some type of service manual, Haynes, Chilton, or a Ford factory manual.
Coolant drain pan, same thing is an oil drain pan basically.
A set of ramps makes it super easy, but a jack and jackstands work just as good.
A power screwdriver is super helpful too but not necessary.
A magnetic screwdriver with a set of driver bits that includes TORX bits.
Rags for sweat, tears, car fuids, and blood.
TO BEGIN!!!
Disconnect the negative lead to the battery. Give the system a couple minutes to drain down.
Pry off the bezel around the HVAC controls.
Take out the screws on either side of the center console trim that holds the HVAC controls and the radio. Do the same with the screws for the console piece that holds the shifter.
Taking out the seats may provide you more room to work but I didn't bother. I'm a pretty big guy and I got by with contortionism. This is your choice though.
Unscrew the shifter knob and take that trim piece out.
Take out the screws that hold the HVAC controls on.
Pull out the ashtry and take out the screw directly behind where the tray sits in the console.
Take out the radio if you can, you'll need a special tool to do this and I didn't have one. It isn't necessary but makes things easier.
Pull off the kick guards down underneath the dash on either side of the center console.
On either side of the heater unit there are white plastic cams with cables attached to them. These cams operate the paddles within the unit to adjust where air gets vented to, dash, floor, defrost, etc. Remove the ends of the cables from these cams. These cables are tied directly to the HVAC controls.
Now pull the HVAC control unit out until you can unhook the wire connectors in the back. Once you get those loose pull it all the way out.
If the radio is still in you can now get to the connectors in the back of it. Unhook those and take that out too.
Unhook the connectors for the cigarette lighter.
Remove the console.
Remove the trim piece to the right of the glove box.
Take out the passenger dash vent.
Take off the glove box.
Unhook the hood release lever from the trim. There was a nut hidden on the backside of mine and it took me forever to figure out how to get it off.
Take off the trim piece below the steering wheel.
This is optional, but you can take off the airbag for safety since you'll be screwing with the steering column. To do so, pop off the little round caps on either side of the steering wheel. Take out the bolts under those caps. Unhook the electrical connectors. Take out the airbag. BE VERY CARFUL with it and sit it somewhere out of the way and FACING UP. It can open and cause serious injury while being handled or if dropped.
Remove the trim on the steering column, top and bottom. 3 screws are on the bottom piece and clamshell around the steering column.
Unhook the little lignition light by twisting it and pulling it out.
Take out the bolts holding the steering column to the dash.
Lower the steering column.
Take off the instrument bezel.
Go under the car and unhook the speedo cable from the top of the transaxle. This will create slack to pull the instrument cluster out.
Pull out the instrument cluster and unhook all the cables in the back.
Pry off the triangular sail panels on either end of the dash.
Pull off the L shaped HVAC tubes on either side of the heater unit. These are right behind the radio and HVAC controls on either side of the heater unit like bull's horns.
Now the fun begins...
Take off the long black trim piece right at the edge of the window on top of the dash. There is ONE screw in the most idiotic spot right in the center. I had to put a TORX bit in it and turn it out with a pair of needle nose pliers. Once that is out, pry the trim piece up and remove it.
The dash is held in by 11 bolts.
3 along the edge of the windshield that were under the vent trim piece you just removed. These are the worst. Take the end ones out with a box wrench. The middle one you should be able to get a socket on, if not, use the box wrench.
4 under the triangular sail panels on the ends of the dash, 2 on each side.
4 at the base of the center console bolting the dash to the floor, 2 on each side.
Pull the dash free far enough to unhook all the cables and then pull it out.
VIOLA!!! The HOLY GRAIL IS WITHIN SIGHT!!!
Take out the heater unit.
Take the cover off from over the inlet & outlet of the heater core.
Pull out the old heater core being careful not to destroy any padding that may be around it. You'll want to reuse this. Do not use a hard insulator around the heater core or you may damage the new one putting it in.
Put in the new heater core.
Put the heater unit back on being careful not to smack the heater core tubes as you slide them through the firewall.
Put the dash back in and hook all your cables back up. Make sure your HVAC tubes get aligned correctly and that you aren't pinching any wires before bolting it back in.
Bolt in the dash.
Replace the trim along the window. I left that annoying screw out when I put it back on.
Replace all the trim pieces in reverse order of how they were taken off. Be careful to hook all your wires back up to the HVAC controls, radio, guages, light dimmer, etc. Also don't forget to put the hood release back on.
When reattaching the HVAC cables to the cams on the heater unit pay attention to where the cams are relative to the position of the control levers. Just mess with it for a bit and you should be able to figure out what goes where and how it works.
Hook the battery back up and get the front end up off the ground on the ramps. The car should start and run as it did before if you did everything right.
Put your coolant drain pan under the coolant hoses on the back side of the engine.
The heater core should have had a cap on one tube, leave this on. Unhook the bypass and attach it to the uncapped heater core tube. Tighten the hose clamp. Run another hose from the engine to the other heater core tube. Tighten the hose clamps. It helps to put the hose clamps on the hose before attaching it to the tubes in both cases. The factory clamps are one piece shoot metal rings. Compress the tabs with a pair of vice grips to loosen these, then release them where you want them over the tube ends.
Pour the coolant back into the overflow canister for the car.
Wash away any spilled coolant with plenty of water from a garden hose or a bucket.
You're done, enjoy the heat!
I have pics that I took that need to be hosted somewhere. I'll post a link to those later.
Thanks, be safe, and good luck!
[/b]