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'98 S70 Heater Core R&R is a snap! S70

Smell of antifreeze in cabin, fog in windshield.

New Behr heater core from AutohausAZ.com cost $77

The only tool required is a Torx screwdriver with assorted sized bits.

You also need some old towels to catch the coolant that will spill out when you pull the heater core free.

It is NOT necessary to remove the dash or console.

Takes only an hour to R&R the heater core. May take the rest of the day to get the coolant out of your carpet. We were lucky and caught it early.

1) Squeeze the plastic latches where the heater hoses plug in to the fire wall and pull them out, noting which hose went in which hole. Secure them up high enough so no coolant spills out.

2) Loosen or remove the two screws in the galvanized plate where you just removed the heater hoses. Those screws hold the water tubes to the cabin side of the firewall.

3) Remove the screw below the steering colum that holds the lower shroud under the dash. Drop it down, unplug the courtesy light, and pull it free.

4) Pull the carpet away from the side of the console up next to the gas pedal. Pull it back as far as you can. Check for coolant under carpet.

5) Snap the black plastic panel off its snap under the console 'skin', then slide it toward the rear of the car to disengage it from the heater core housing. You should now clearly see the white plastic heater core housing, and the two water tubes coming down from the firewall.

6) On the passenger side, loosen the glove box and then remove the lower shroud and the black plastic panel, just as you did on the driver side.

7) Remove two Torx screws from each side of the heater core housing that hold the bottom half to the top half. (one horizonal and one vertical). Remove the Torx screw between the water pipes that hold them to the bottom of the heater core.

8) Get your towels ready. Now pull the bottom of the heater core housing down and rearward so that it disingages from the water tubes. Unplug the A/C drain hose from the floor and pull it aside so that the heater core will slide out easily toward the passenger side.

9) Unscrew the heater core from the bottom half of the heater core housing and, like the books say, assembly is the opposite of disassembly.

10) To remove the coolant from your carpet, a carpet shampoo machine with an upholstery attachment is useful. You may need to remove your front seats if it is bad.








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    '98 S70 Heater Core R&R is a snap!


    Great Manolo,

    I think this is going to be helpful to many.

    My 99's core is suspect. Can you substitute using hose
    clamps [ IPD has them ] in your steps one and two to stop
    the flow of coolant.
    I'm little leary about the firewall piping.

    Thanks,

    rd








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      '98 S70 Heater Core R&R is a snap!

      Glad to be of assistance. I usually visit only the 200 Forum. Other than the usual bubbling door panels and crappy electrical switches, the S70 has not given any problems until this heater core incident.


      I think that I understand that you prefer to use some sort of pinch clamp to close off the heater hoses rather than unplugging them from the firewall?

      That should work just fine. Two pairs of vise-grips with rags to 'soften' the bite would also work.

      I would be a little concerned about damaging the wall of the heater hose if it is old and brittle. If you damage it, you will be removing it soon like-it-or-not ;)

      I had removed the heater hoses and plugged them in to each other, using a short piece of hose as a coupling, at the beginning of the summer when we figured out that the heater core was leaking. We didn't get motivated to buy the new core until it started getting cold outside.








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        '98 S70 Heater Core R&R is a snap! S70 1998

        Did you'all have any predetermining issues that caused to replace the heater core? The reason I ask is because my "check engine" light just appeared, and just before that, I had the smell of anti-freeze, and foggy windows.(?) Same culprit you think?







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