I think my heater core is dead...

[slasherbarb]

Symptoms:

-No Heat
-Nice little coolant puddle on passenger side front carpet...



so...how hard is this to change???

[Tru2Chevy]

I haven't done one in a 4th gen before, but I've never done one that I would classify as "easy". They are generally a pain to change.

- Justin

[The Fixer]

I know my mechanic friend spent several hours doing on on my brother's old 3rd Gen Camaro; I'm sure the 4th gen is no better.

Thankfully the one on my Monte is accessible from the outside, and only takes ~1 hour to change. :)

[BonzoHansen]

Never did a 4th gen, but a 3rd gen is a cake walk compared to a 2nd gen.

[98tadriver]

did a 3rd gen, its kind of a PITA, but not impossible.

[JL8Jeff]

Have you tried to backflush the core yet? My old 93 would need to be backflushed every year as we got to winter. The Dexcool crap will buildup in the pipes with all the 90 degree bends and eventually slow the flow through the heater core. I used to drain the radiator, disconnect the hoses at the water pump and engine and hook the garden hose up to blow the crap out. You could see all the buildup come back out and I'd be good for a year. The 93's had the worst heater hose routing of all the 4th gens though. The fact that you have a wet carpet is not a good sign though. It still might be worth the backflush first.

[BonzoHansen]

Wet floor is very bad. Smell out of vents? Any filmy buildup on the windshield yet?

[ar0ck]

The heater core is inside the dashboard if I remember correctly. I could have sworn James did it on his firebird.

[slasherbarb]

Wet floor is very bad. Smell out of vents? Any filmy buildup on the windshield yet?yes to all that...but right now i might be getting a beater and it hasn't been unberable yet so im no rush to do it...

[best of both]

On the fourth gen it is accessable behind the glove box. The hard part is getting the hoses off and on. It took about an hor and a half on my 96 Z28.I can try to post the proceedure from Mitchell if you need it.