Hello Chrysler friends! Thank you for the add to the group! I am joining this group as a way to reach out to everyone for their expertise regarding, from what i'm reading, a common problem with these 200 series cars....the heater core. More specifically though, how do you remove it? I am going to help a good friend out and replace it for her. She said that there has been anti-freeze leaking in to the drivers and passenger side. Obviously, intermittent heat and car overheats when it's hot out and she operates the AC. Her mechanic is under the impression that there is a leak in the heater core but he's not positive so I figure that is where i'll start at. I've only done one heater core and that was on a 95 mitsubishi 3000gt vr4 that I owned way back when. So I guess my question is, will I be ripping the dash out all the way to the fire wall? Or can the evap/heat exchanger box be yanked out via the passenger side with only the glove box removed? Thanks all! Any links or "how-to" vids would be greatly appreciated as well.

Nate

 

Welcome to the forum. Be prepared to pull out the entire dash. It's a very big job so be sure it's necessary before you start. You might want to invest twenty-five bucks in a Haynes manual or similar for a guide. If you don't have them, a set of plastic trim tools is worth its weight in gold for disassembling the dash. They're cheap and will save you from gouging up the plastic components.

Come back and tell us how it went.

 

Oh good call! i'll pick up some plastic trim tools while i'm picking up the part. Thanks for the advice. I'll take pics along the way. I think i'm cursed with dash removals, this will be the third one in less than a year. I pulled mine off the corolla and my mothers off in her Taurus... Thanks for the advice!

 

So i'm about 90% of the way through taking the dash out but i've run in to a block. How do you recommend disconnecting the passenger air bag? The only way I can really see is if I cut the wire bundle that goes to the it, isolate the lines, and disconnect it from the airbag control module in the center. Does this seem right? I have been poking around the back of the airbag at the two connectors and they don't feel like they disconnect. Although, I could be just babying it because I don't want it to go off... what do you think?

 

I would not cut the wires. I assume you have disconnected the battery a long time ago in this project and the system is therefore dead. With no energy in the system the airbag won't go off. Like every other system in the car it's made to be assembled quickly and easily in the factory. There will be plugs for making the connection. Keep looking for them. If all else fails, get a shop manual.

 

Ok so I actually found two approaches to this. First one is that you can unhook the hooks that attach the bag itself to the frame, OR, after doing some reading in a Haynes book like you suggested, it looks like you can disconnect the two connectors in the back of the bag. I prefer the first approach because it lets you remove the top dash panel and see everything. I took a lot of pictures and will upload them when I'm done.

So far the dash is completely removed, including the steel support frame. I now have the entire heater/cooling box isolated with nothing attached to it except the cooling and AC lines that lead back in to the engine bay. I think I can get away with disconnecting the coolant lines and sliding the heater core out like a card from the side. Has anyone done it like that? Thanks!

Nate