heater core is leaking brutal so now i got some work to do....its my first time replacing it so i was wondering if anybody has any pics or info to make this a lil easier for me, all help would be appreciated, and my car is a 03 cavi...from what my friends at work say its a pain lol o and do i have to flush the freeon???

Not sure about the 03 but I know on my 99 it was fun!

Took me about 3 hours total to pull the old one and put in the new one. Your time will vary depending on your knowledge and access to tools.

To see what has to be done, go sit in your car, driver or passanger side, either work. Look at everything between you and the firewall, IT ALL HAS TO COME OUT!

Its a stupid design GM made(like thats never happened before).

Main tools will be a steering wheel puller which can be rented at your local oriley autoparts, and a decent set of metric sockets.\

Just remember where everything goes and you wont have any issues.


It was late and my garage isnt that bright or I would have snapped some pictures when I did mine. Ill take some when I get around to replacing my dash.


Thomas

"Oil Leak ? What oil Leak ? Oh, Thats Just The Sweat From All The HorsePower!!"

thanks dude i work at autozone so no problem on the puller or part o and i think they might be the same cuz i checked by part number that it goes all the way to 97. three hours doesnt seem to bad cuz shop price pay for a 6 hr job standard man what a rip off right and when ever you have time to post pics its cool with me..i plan on doing it within the rest of the month

I 2nd what skyline said, but it took me quit a bit longer than 3 hours on my 98 2.2. the shop that i called wouldn't even touch the job, said it was just too much of a pain in the rear. and it was. biggest problems i had were:

1. trying to get the screws out of the plastic housing around the heater core. i nearly had to pull out the carpet to get the ones closest to the firewall. there was much swearing, and a swivel socket adapter and varying lengths of extensions will be very useful. upon reinstalling, there was at least one screw left out, and I notched the housing with a dremel, as there was a portion of back that would not realign or snap in with the carpet in place.

2. the way the 98 is set up, the clamps that keep the rubber tubing on the heater core lines are almost directly behind the engine, against the firewall. A super strong magic monkey hand would be very useful about now. i had to remove a few things towards the back of the engine so i could even get my had in there. it was very frustrating, and i ended up using a tin snips on the metal core lines from the inside of the car, and then removed the clamps and the line pieces once they were able to me moved around in the engine bay. reinstalling wasn't fun either, as those clamps still need to be put in place on the new core.

3 no amount of bleeding has removed all the air from my coolant lines.. so just accept that you will, at points, be able to hear the the bubbles trickling through the new core.

hope any of that is useful and good luck.

thanks hopefully i dont screw anything up lol