This weekend I was owned by the heater core. The one of the plastic pipes that goes through the firewall is crumbling away and every few months the upper hose pops off.

I've had a new oem core sitting around for a few months. I got ambitious and tried to put it in this weekend. I got a late start yesterday but took all the dash trim out. This was the easy part.

Today I was just just dumbfounded by how much more was going to have to be removed. I examined everything and realized I was defeated. I live in an apartment complex that does not allow you to work on a car or keep a disabled vehicle on property. I bow down to those who have done it.

The only way I could do this job would be to photograph everything as I take it apart and then bag the pieces and staple the picture to it. This would require a few days and private place to work.

I'm putting the dash back together now. I have serously thought about just grabbing a case of beer and a new Kia and calling it a day. I'm not sure the what the purpose of this post is, i guess it just needs to go into the search archives to water down the successful heater core results. Some people can't do it.

 

Oh you can do it. It seems really daunting at first to take the entire dash out, but it really all goes back together only one way and you can't mess it up. The only thing that used to get me was the dash wiring harness, getting it all tucked back in how it's supposed to go.

Taking pictures is the failsafe way. Just take pics and take your time visualizing it all and it won't be an issue.

Worst case, if you get to start putting it back together or come across parts and can't remember where they go post here and there's quite a few of us who can help you pretty quickly

 

Man up...it's not easy but it's not impossible.

 

As said, it's time consuming but not terribly hard. Take a full weekend and just knock it out. you can have it apart in less than a day, then replace the core and put it all back together the next day. fortunately all of the parts will fit in the trunk and backseat and it's not like the car is up on jackstands or an eyesore to the neighbors or you're dumping oil on the ground. Just get 'er done and by the time apartment management comes back to the office monday morning to hear from that pissy old lady 3 doors down, you'll be finished and can pretend it never happened.

 

Nobody like taking apart a dash board, especially on there own ride. Back in 90' I had an 84 Mustang Cobra that I had to drop the steering column and remove most of the dash to get behind there to remove a part of the clutch pedal assembly. I couldn't believe at first that I had 2 do all this shiit just to remove/replace a piece of plastic that the gear stripped off of. It took about a day and a half with the help of my bro but we got it done. I had my parents driveway to do it in though but it can be done inconspicuously enough.

 

I'm gonna try an reserve a 3 day weekend for it, that plastic pipe is going to have to hold on a little longer. Someone on here said there's has been similarly broken for five years, but I hate having no confidence in the car if I need to go out of town. So yes, I will do this in the next month or so.

 

Well that makes two of us. Ive got to replace mine also, before it gets too cold down here. I was practicing on a car in the junkyard. I was wondering though that if you can get the assembly by itself(heater core inside the housing). I saw one on ebay for a 4th generation seems like it would be easier to install that way.