heater core woes

[streetstang88]

the heater core in my 89 5.0 left me a gift in my floor board ........ is it worth trying at home ive never replaced one in a mustang ive got it bypassed
but its kinda cold .....thankful for any tips

[banditmwp]

You can try it at home, but you will basically have to remove the whole dash. :notnice:

[streetstang88]

daumn...i was afraid of that ,,,will be pricey if i take it somewhere

[Hotrod]

Its not hard to remove the dash. It just takes time. (I think I got it out in an hour and I had never messed with it before). You also have to remove the console to get the dash out of the car.

[joker]

Its not hard to remove the dash. It just takes time. (I think I got it out in an hour and I had never messed with it before). You also have to remove the console to get the dash out of the car. Yea it really isnt that bad, just time consuming. You have to remove the center console, unhook the dash harness from the rear harness and eec harness, remove guage cluster, speaker covers, drop the steering wheel, then you can drop the dash. Not a bad idea to unhook the dash harness from inside the engine bay, but not a must do either. Figure about a 4 to 8 hour job if you do it yourself, depending on how mechanically inclined you are. Someone who has done it a time or two could probably do it from start to finish between 2 to 4 hours. From a shop, I would expect it to be around 4 hours of labor.

[FastRedPonyCar]

yeah back in auburn, one of my roomates got his dad's F150 and the week after, the heatercore took a leak all over the floorboard as well. As I was leaving for work one morning, a guy that used to be the head mechanic at a ford dealership showed up with a tool kit and new heater core parts. As I was coming home that evening he was leaving.

It's not easy but it has to be done. Antifreeze fumes can wreak havoc on your sinuses. Whitney's volvo's heaetercore was leaking too but it was an interior leak so we couldn't actually see fluid but you could smell it. Volvo makes a small access panel on the firewall for easy access right to the core. Guy that did the work said it took him 30 minutes to swap them out. :D

[Catang5oh]

i did mine without removing the dash completely from the car, i unbolted it and pulled it as far back as possible on the right side, it was very time consuming and tedious, but it came out after a little pushing and pulling here and there.

[ncontt]

yeah back in auburn, one of my roomates got his dad's F150 and the week after, the heatercore took a leak all over the floorboard as well. As I was leaving for work one morning, a guy that used to be the head mechanic at a ford dealership showed up with a tool kit and new heater core parts. As I was coming home that evening he was leaving.


Done one of those before too....ARGGGHHHHHH the F150 is wayyyyyy worse (IMO) like they said, not hard just hard to get to

[QWKSNKE]

pretty sure that shop labor is based off of 6 hrs. If it is a factory non-a/c car you can change it in 20 minutes

[04 Mach1]

They not that bad just don't get in a rush like they said pull the console drop the column and pull back the passenger side. If you have ac you will have to evaculate the system.

[coupe]

streetstang88...it is a real pain in the ass. I did mine last month. You can find some good step-by-step instructions on the web, but some people have different ways of getting to it than others. If you can afford it, have a Ford dealership do it so it's done right.

The only things that really need to come out are the 1) center console (to let you pull dash back) 2) the steering column has to drop (to get to the one bolt holding the bottom of the dash up) and 3) the speaker grilles and defrost plastic covers (to acces the bolts that hold the rest of the dash up. Looking back on it, the cluster probably can stay in.

I only had my complete dash pulled back by about 8-10 inches...a little biased toward the pass. side. I did not evacuate my A/C which made the prying up of the heater-box cover a real bear, many people just cut it and silicone it back. There's an A/C evaporator in the same box as the heater core; it's attached to the A/C lines at the firewall. If you actually don't have A/C charged, I recommend disconnecting it at the accumulator (black tank attached to firewall) so you can pull that HVAC box further back from the firewall and access the core/box cover.

Again, if you can swing it, take it to a dealership. Oh, and make sure to get an actual FORD heater-core. The Autozone/parts-store cores are half the price but...they're not as good.

[JimS]

the heater core in my 89 5.0 left me a gift in my floor board ........ is it worth trying at home ive never replaced one in a mustang ive got it bypassed
but its kinda cold .....thankful for any tips

Assuming you have A/C it's a big job, but if you don't, it's an easy job.

I'm guessing you have A/C.

[streetstang88]

its has ac .... might just be a warm weather car j/k... i hear you on the cheap heater cores learned that the hard way once before...
i will be in touch w/ford dealer