Plugged Heater core on Sable

[Ford_Racing_Guy]

My brother just bought a 98 Sable from my grandparents for really cheap, now one of the few problems it has is no heat. after changing the thermostat and checking the color of the fluid i am lead to believe that the heater core is plugged.

now how easy is it to unplug a heater core? and how successful can one be when doing so?


i really want to get around having to replace it because the whole dash has to come out and the A/C Refrigerant has to be recovered and whatnot, plus i don't have much time to do anything with school/work and my own stuff to fix, and he is no where near to being able to do it himself.


any suggestions are much appreciated.

 

[Ford_Racing_Guy]

no one's ever unplugged one?

 

[old mechanic]

Most heater cores are a pain to change. Did you check to see if the heater hose going in is hot? Then check if the heater hose going out is hot. If its not hot going in then you have a problem elsewhere. If the inlet heater hose is hot and the output hose is not hot then most likely your heater core is pluged.
Also Why does the A/C have to be recovered and replaced? The heater core should not be connected to the A/C.

 

[ExplorerDMB]

old mechanic is right. Check all that stuff just to make sure. Most heater cores can be right behind the glovebox (i.e. '95 F-series), but then some have to have the dash completely taken out (i.e. '00 Explorer). The reasoning behind the A/C extract is I'm guessing that you'll need to break into the AC lines to get stuff out of your way. Good thing it is 134 instead of R-12...cause R-12 isn't allowed anymore -- unless your a mechanic and have a certain card thing that allows you to get it.

Anyway, More than likely you will have to pull the dash out for sure. Not many new vehicles make it easy for the heatercore to come out. You might want to see if you could run some coolant flush chemicals and see if anything will break it up to give you a litte heat - but when a few guys at my work break into the heater cores themselves after they pull them from the customers vehicles - those things are pretty nasty. So if your getting NO heat at all....then pull that dash out. Good luck.

-Drew