Just a short intro to my latest project replacing my heater core on my 94 Jeep Grand Cherokee. I’m not going to film this project but here is the blog postin…
Heater Core Replacement 94 Jeep Grand Cherokee
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damn! that looks like a major P.I.T.A.
Does rad weld not work? Its a filler that goes in the water system and goes
hard when it meets air ??? Must be easier than a full dash removal.
Ok thanks Todd. Yeah I haven’t ran the AC lately and the big puddles on
both sides of the dash smell funny and smoke is coming in when the blower
is on and when first started up I hear a sloshing sound in the dash
My heater controls shows back to front ,when they are on or showing,
indicating cold the heater is hot ,when they are on hot they blow cold. Any
ideas what the fault is please.
If the heater core is going bad would that cause water to leak in your
floor board?
Ah yes, corporations making maximum profit to please and entice investors
instead of looking out for their customers and making things work easy and
simple to save them money. You buy our product, instead of us appreciating
you giving us your business, we’re going to make simple issues as costly
and as much of a pain in the butt as we can, for either you or your
mechanic. And if you can’t or don’t want to deal with the issue, some
mechanic will rightfully charge you an arm and a leg for such an
idiotically involved job. There is no reason whatsoever an easy access door
couldn’t have been put in to make the heater core replacement a simple and
easy procedure. You have to remove the steering column and complete dash
just to change the heater core? What complete crap! And it’s certainly not
just Jeep, it’s ALL the big corporate manufacturers. In fact it’s not
business, it’s the corporate mentality and meaning of life, where their
only concern is investor return instead of the product they’re producing,
customer service, and we won’t even mention concern for their workers. Good
businesses are built by REAL business people who care about their product,
customers, and workers. Good businesses are destroyed by the corporate
takeover, like we’ve been experiencing for the last three plus decades
where maximum profit is all that matters.
@adlerweb, The datasheet on 1234yf is scary but I guess it will have better
performance then 134a and may not be as bad of an environment hazard but
that hasn’t been determined yet per the national ref datasheet. I can say;
give my simple old r134a any day so I don’t have to worry about blowing up
my garage or killing myself just working on my car’s AC.
I found some coin myself.
@RimstarOrg, That is kind of why I picked up the video camera. I was
thinking most people don’t even know how the heat gets in the cab and most
people would not guess it would be so much work. A little educational video
clip.
Not sure if you can still get it as replacement but r134a was forbidden for
new EU-car designs in 2011 and is going to be forbidden for current designs
sold beginning 2017. As far as i know most EU-car companys play with
R1234yf but it is explosive when exposed to air and reseases corrosive and
toxic gasses if it catches fire so i guess for this law all has not been
said and done
@Sachi WI, It is a big job. What I do is take lots of photos, put parts
inline along the wall with the nuts, bolts and screws in little zip lock
bags attached or with the parts so I know the order to reverse and what
fasteners go with what parts. If the fasteners are different size or length
I will draw a picture on a tag and put it in the bag with the fasteners.
Take your time, kind of think of it as a fun puzzle game.
Yeah ErictheCarGuy and BriansMobile1 are great channels. I also like
Richpin06a and TheAlexManVideos. But for very educational automotive
videos, I like realfixesrealfast. He will often go through a diagnosis,
giving you all of the evidence, and the opportunity to try to determine the
problem yourself until finally showing you what it was and how to resolve
it. He’s an actual automotive teacher, I believe.
@Dennis, I would say with the AC being pulled out and flushed I would say
~6 hours. It will take another 6 to put it all back an charge the AC. I got
going on the install but had to stop and get a new blower motor. The motor
was bad, it could have waited being it is easy to get to at all times but
much nicer to put it in when everything is just layout out on the work
bench.
No wonder I haven’t seen you in quite awhile – Thanks for the update – most
guys won’t say crap – When i saw the inside of that Jeep I about flipped –
something I would NEVER ever do because I would never ever get it back
together and working again lol
@wivy1, You’re welcome. I finished all the work in the cab over the
weekend. Now I just have the work that is left under the hood which isn’t
much and is the easy part of this project. I should be on the road with the
Jeep in a couple of days. I think I might make a teardown video of the old
AC compressor and fan blower motor, could be interesting.
Mid/late 90s fiats: take glovebox off, unscrew/cut the cover, unbolt
connectorblock from heater core, slide core out, replace with new O-rings,
slap cover and glovebox back, add fluid and rev the engine. Done. And then
stilo came out and they skimped on everything.
I don’t usually like to get my hands dirty so I don’t usually do big jobs
on my car, except for electrical stuff. The biggest job I did on my car was
take the center console out (3 rows of seats, each with their own air
controls). It cost me an entire afternoon and I had to do it outside — no
nice garage and 95+ F (35+ C) outside. But I fixed the gear shift that
wouldn’t unlock anymore, and I found some coins from the previous owner
that had been rattling since we got the car. So, Kudos to you!
I have to laugh when I see that huge lump-of-an-engine sat there. Fuel
prices here in UK and environmental issues prohibit this capacity engine
for all but those of us who are enthusiasts or have plenty money. We are
even exempt road tax if we confine our engines to something akin a sewing
machine and producing minimum emissions with minimum this and reduced that
– Ahhhh. There’s nothing like the feeling of raw power under the bonnet.
Nice vid Todd as always.
You need a vacuum pump as well for the AC system to get the last water out,
and as well if it has been uncharged for a while you will have to dive in
under the fender and replace the receiver drier there as well, otherwise
the new compressor will have a very short unhappy life as it tries to pump
acid sludge that was the PAG oil. New drier is cheap, get it and the
pressure switch at the same time so you have less to try to undo as well as
a box of green refrigerant rated Orings just in case.
I knew a guy who owned a Lada, the engine bay had an engine, spare tyre,
high lift jack, toolbox of car tools, battery, cranking handle and still
you could climb in there and close the bonnet. Noisy, slow and
underpowered, but it could go just about anywhere a Land Cruiser would go
except wading with it meant you got wet. He did not care about pinstriping
it or denting it off road, as it was less than 5% of the cost of any other
4×4.
Yeah, I noticed that on my old 97 Bravo. Very easy! But on many cars I’ll
guess it will be easier to just remove it all instead of curling your body
up under a dashboard in painful positions looking for screws. Been there,
done that. Ouuuch!
I’ve got to take a nap now just exhausted thinking about all the work
involved. I replaced head gaskets once on a 1990 toyota SR5 and can’t
believe I did that. I’ll stick with just brakes and oil change now. OK,
maybe the water pumps and belts too.
Thanks for that Todd. I look forward to the future when you “do what you
think is fin” and come up with a hydrogen/electric/whatever substitute for
petrol (sorry, gas!!) so I can rush out and buy a Cherokee for myself
without it affecting the bank balance too much!! Hey and don’t keep us
waiting for too long. Cheers Robert
Oh dear God! What a mess, my 96 ZJ needs this done in a bad way! I need a
garage bad, I had been told horror stories on this job and now you have
clearly painted the picture. My trouble is this old Jeep is still my daily
driver, runs great, just needs a bunch minor stuff done, the Evaporator
being the biggest problem right now. I do love the old zj they are tough
and worth keeping, would love to see any other jeep projects you may do
@Harley, Yes I love those old cars for working on. I had an old chev truck
with a straight 6 and I was able to stand on the ground while under the
hood working on the motor in the rain. It had a crazy amount of room under
the hood and a small motor for a big truck. Everything was super easy to
get to and work on in that old truck. Not so anymore for most modern cars
and trucks.
@Senapspiser, Not even an option with this Jeep. The black ducting box has
to come out before you can get the core out so you have no choice but to
remove everything. The seats could have stayed but really that was the
simplest part, 4 bolts and on power seat connecter.