Hey all, I have searched multiple times and found minimal information on heater core replacement for my '96. I know a year or so ago there was a heater core replacement how-to, but it seems to be gone now?!?!? anyone have the link?

Is it true that it can be done by only removing the glove box??

I'm going to replace it soon, so any advice would be helpful.

I read that I'll need a torx socket, I'll have to discharge the A/C, and I'll have to remove the whole dash. Any thing else you alls can think to do while I'm in there??? I have an FSM but there's not a lot of info about this either.

Thanks,
AJ - in ATL

 

I just did mine, and had to remove the entire dash. The part for the glove box removal is not the heater core. Not sure the name of the part but its tied into the AC. The job is a major PITA. Thankfully I had removed my dash a couple of times before that and made it easier but still a PITA. I even tried to do a write-up but got so frustrated that i scraped that idea. The job took me about 5-6 hours to do(over 2 days), and you would also need to get your AC evacuated properly.

Check out NYCmaximas, they have a write-up stickied over there.

 

You have to disassemble the entire dash. The glove box trick is for replacing the Evaporator core - a component of your A/C system.

Credit goes to Dallas0593 for this writeup. Originally posted on nycmaximas.org:
http://forums.nycmaximas.org/showthread.php?t=19515

Pasted here for your convenience and others who may have to do this now that the weather is getting cold - hope it helps:

---------------

After 5 hrs of work this is what I have now
http://img96.imageshack.us/my.php?image=int1kh4.jpg
http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=int2iy4.jpg
http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=int3ih0.jpg

Here is the heater core I took out:
http://img395.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hcclogqz5.jpg
http://img175.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hcclog2ga5.jpg
The hole was about 95% clogged but i dug alot of the **** out to see what it was. It had a soft clay like texture. I am assuming that when the radiator place changed the heater core the 1st time they never did a flush. When they installed this heater core all the crap that was in the system settled in the heater core causing all the problems I have been having. I did 2 system flushes before I started this job so hopefully this will fix the problem of no heat. Now tommorrow I get to spend another 4-5 hrs putting everything back together again.



Well 2 days after doing this and my heat is stll amazing. Between my heat being perfect and my blower motor not making anymore noise I couldn't be more happy with my car. It was without a doubt worth all the trouble and aggravation. Taking it out and putting it back together wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, the pictures pretty much tell the story, it is a difficult job to do but more because it is tedious and time consuming not hard physical work. A quick how to for anyone considering it. Sorry I didn't take pictures. It was a very timeconsuming job without having to take pictures every minute. I did post some pictures above of what it looks like after taking the dash apart.

1. Dissconnect the negative battery cable. Open your glovebox and at the top where the glovebox latch is you will see a yellow connector,this is your air bag connector, dissconnect this yellow connector. This will disable your airbag and will keep it from going off.

2. Make sure you have 1/4 ratchet set with at least a 6 inch extension. I say a 1/4 set because most of the bolts and nuts are 10mm and you need to get into very small spaces so the 1/4 drive is better. Also have many screwdrivers of different lengths laying around, you will need phillips for all the screws and a couple flat heads for prying. Also VERY IMPORTANT is a roll of masking tape to mark all the connectors you will be dissconnecting. Have 3 small containers to hold nuts,bolts and screws. 1 container to hold all the dash parts, 1 container to hold all the bolts for the dash brace you will take out and the last container for the bolts that hold the heater core,condensor and other parts you will be taking off.

3. You will also need a 3/8 drive for taking the dash brace apart and dissconnecting the air bag.

4. Speaking of the air bag, make sure BEFORE you start you have a T-50 tamper-resistant torx socket.
I didn't notice I needed 1 till I had the dash 1/2 apart then took me 1 1/2 hrs to find one, which I finally did at Sears.

5. Drain the system of all antifreeze. I would suggest you do a sysytem flush at least 2 times before draing the system. I did 1 flush then drained, refilled and did another flush then drained again.

6. You start by dissconnecting your heater hoses [2] from the heater core at the firewall.Also dissconnect the cable that runs from the heater core through the firewall and to your heater valve, dissconnect it and push it through the firewall so when you pull of the heater core housing this cable will be free. Remember to push this back through when re-intalling everything.

7. Dissconnect your a/c supply lines at the firewall also. Make sure you have the a/c properly discharged beforehand.

8. Now is when the fun starts. You start by taking apart the plastic peices that make up your steering column. Pry off you key switch cover. Then take out the 6 screws that hold the surrounding plastic pieces together.

9. Take out the 2 screws that hold the speedometer bezel in.

10. Take out the 3 screws that hold the speedometer in and remove the speedometer. dissconnect the 3 electrical connectors that go to the speedometer.

11. Now take off the 2 bolts that hold the steering column up. Your steering wheel will now drop to the floor allowing for much more room to work.

12. Now it is time to take apart your center console. Move your seats to the most forward position and you will see the crews at the very back of the console, remove these 2 screws.

13. Pry up your plastic trim around your auto shift. You will have to turn it sideways to get it off the shift ****. Dissconnect your cigarette lighter and mark it.

14. Remove the remaining 2 screws that hold the center console down and remove center console. If you have heated seats like I do push up the heated seats switches and dissconnect the switches, once again mark these switches so you will know where they go.

15. Pry out your upper heater vents where your hazard and defrost buttons are. This is held in only with clips and should come out pretty easily. Again mark the switches after dissconnecting. I can't stress enough how important it is to mark all the switches after dissconnecting. You will have so many dissconnected switches when you have the dash apart it will be very easy to forget where things go. I forgot to mark 1 switch and it literally took me 1 hr to figure out where it went. If it wasn't for having the FSM I would have had to take the entire heater core out again to firgure out where it went.

16.Take out the 2 screws at the top of the heater control unit and 2 at the bottom of your radio unit and the 2 units should come out as 1 unit with your change tray. MARK THE CONNECTORS that you dissconnected.

17. Take out your glovebox and remove the 4 screws that hold the glovebox bezel in. Mark the connectors.

18. Pry up your defrost vents on the top of the dash. Mark the sunload sensor you will dissconnect on the passenger side.

19. Take off [by prying] the trim pieces on the sides of the windshield. This will alow easier removal of the dash.

20. There are 2 screws [1 on each side] in the defrst vents. Remove these 2 screws.

21. Under the dash by the fuse box you will remove the scre there and the other side where the glovebox is there is another screw. There are 2 screws where your radio unit was remove these and any other screws holding the dash in. I remember there being 2 more screws that the Haynes manual didn't describe holding the dash in. You will notice them when you start pulling the dash out.

22. Now you will need the T-50 tamperproof torx I was telling you about earlier. This is the only socket that will remove these bolts you will not be able to remove the airbag without this tool. I tried with visegrips without any luck and spent 1 hr searching for this torx socket which i found at sears, GET IT BEFOREHAND...trust me!

23. Gently start pulling the whole dash unit out. Be very carefull when pulling out the dash as there may still be screws or connectors you forgot about and you don't want to force anything. The dash should come out fairly easy, you will have to manuver it around your auto stick but it will come out with alittle twisting. Take out the whole unit and put it aside.

24. Now you will see the mess you have gotten yourself into, DON'T worry it isn't as bad as it looks . Remove the 2 driver side heater ducts.Now it is time to take out the dash support beam. It comes out from the pasenger side of the car. You must remove the 3 bolts on the drivers side. Remove the 8 nuts and bolts that hold it together at the center where your radio,a/c units where. Remove the 2 bolts that hold it to the passenger side.


25. Now that you have the airbag dissconnected the dash support shold come out the passenger side of the car. There are ALOT of wires and connectors connected to this bar that you will have to take off to get the bar out, mark them all and where they went before dissconnecting them off the bar.

26. Remove the 4 bolts that hold the condensor to the firewall, it is the largew black unit, it will slide out very easily.

27. Clean out the condensor there will be leaves and junk inside the condensor unit where the little radiator looking thing is. You will know what I'm taking about when you take the condensor out. Dissconnect the connector and mark it.

28. Right above the ECU you will see your floor heating vents unclip this and remove the duct. Remove the 4-6 bolts out that hold the heater core unit to the firewall. I can't rember if it was 4 or 6 but you will see them all and it comes of pretty easily. If it doesn't pull right out then you have other bolts you didn't remove.
Dissconnect the air mix door motor underneath this unit. MARK this connector.

29. With the entire unit out you will notice the heater core held in with 1 screw and a plastic braket holding it in place. Remove this screw and the heater core will slide right out. The return outlet on my heater core was 95% clogged as well as leaking. Clean out any stuff that is in the the heater core housing unit. I also regreased all the door and flapper units now.

30. You will have to remove the 2 plastic elbows and rubber grommets off the old heater core and install them on the new one.

31. Slide new heater core in the housing and screw the plastic braket back in to hold the heater core in place. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE RECONNECTED THE AIR MIX DOOR MOTOR SWITCH BEFORE YOU INSTALL THE HOUSING!!!!!!! This is the 1 switch i forgot to mark and had almost the whole dash back together before I discovered i forgot about this connector. I took a large amount of time and alot of work to get this connector back in after having almost the whole dash back together. IT was extemely difficult to do this so please don't forget to recconnect this connector before installing the heater core housing. Push the plastic inlet and outlet tubes through the firewall and push the housing against the firewall as well. All the bolts should line up pretty easily.

32. Now just do everything in reversal of what you did taking it apart. TAKE YOUR TIME and evrything will go back together pretty easily. The hardest parts will be getting the support bar back in and lined up. Double check you have all the connectors back where they belong and the dash will slide back into place pretty easily, then you are home free. Refill the system, get all the air out and check for leaks.

It took me 5 hrs to take everything apart and 1 hr of that was searching my town for the T-50 tamperproof torx. It took me another 5 hrs to put it back together and again 1 hr of that was figuring out where the air mix door motor connector went. So the whole job took 10 hrs where as it should have only taken 7-8 hrs realistically.

This is it now http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/2973/0000011al6.jpg

I can't stress enough to mark everything!!! It will make everything alot easier. And WITHOUT A DOUBT SPEND THE $15 FOR A HAYNES MANUAL. This manual in chapters 3 and 11 pretty much describe everything in detail and with pictures of what I just explained. It is alot better then I have described because it has pictures. I don't think I could have done this without the haynes manual. I have described it as best as I could remember and if you can't get the manual then this write-up is pretty accurate and will get you through it. GOOD LUCK!

 

yaknow how you fix those Security Bits with the Male stud in the center? a screw driver =]

 

EXCELLENT! This is just what I needed. thanks for the info guys.

hopefully I'll have heat by monday

 

Holy crap know that's what I call a write up !! and Maximus Jones see how big the write up is and that's how big the job is ..all I gota say is I rather rebuild my engine than do a heater core !! lol the word is BIG PITA !!! good luck .. oh btw it you lived in a cold climate and can get thru the winter wait until spring NOT in summer !! good luck !

 

Wow is all I can say, looks like my mechanic will be earning his pay on this one..

 

Oh BTW THIS IS GREAT POST!!! THANK YOU!!!

 

This is a 2 year old thread without many pictures. There is a more recent thread with photos of how to remove the dashboard. You may want to look at this one too.

http://forums.maxima.org/4th-generat...dashboard.html