Heater Core Leaking

[Amaan2018]

Couple days ago my heater core decided it was going to start leaking coolant into the cabin. I'm preparing to either deal with removing the dashboard myself to replace the heater core or to pay someone else ~$1000 to do it - I haven't decided yet. I have everything drained and disconnected in the engine bay, got the driver's knee airbag out as well. Someone on reddit shot me an idea.

Instead of pulling half the interior out to replace a $50 part, cut the hard lines on the new heater core and replace with rubber lines. I'd double clamp the lines. But I'm thinking this would only lead to burns on my legs. Any thoughts? I've attached a couple of pictures for people not familiar with how the heater core is setup. The second picture is the hard lines through the firewall where they connect into the soft lines in the engine bay.

 

[koozy]

No need to cut the lines, dumb idea imo. You can just connect the two hose in the engine bay. No coolant needs to go into the passenger compartment.


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[Amaan2018]

No need to cut the lines, dumb idea imo. You can just connect the two hose in the engine bay. No coolant needs to go into the passenger compartment.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I need heat though

 

[koozy]

sorry, thought you were going to remove the heater core by cutting the lines and not replacing the core. If you're gonna replace core by cutting the lines on the new core to accommodate some hoses and not have to take apart the dash to remove the old core lines completely, the risk and choice is yours. If you don't have a way to bead the end of the lines to prevent to hose from slipping off or if the hoses have a chance of coming off the risk is to you and passengers getting sprayed with hot coolant. 2nd degree burns and a mess seem likely if that were to occur. Choice is yours. There's a reason why the OE set up connects the hoses to the core in the engine bay, one is to prevent such an occurrence of passengers getting burned. A slow leaky core is not as drastic as a hose exploding or slipping off.

 

[Amaan2018]

sorry, thought you were going to remove the heater core by cutting the lines and not replacing the core. If you're gonna replace core by cutting the lines on the new core to accommodate some hoses and not have to take apart the dash to remove the old core lines completely, the risk and choice is yours. If you don't have a way to bead the end of the lines to prevent to hose from slipping off or if the hoses have a chance of coming off the risk is to you and passengers getting sprayed with hot coolant. 2nd degree burns and a mess seem likely if that were to occur. Choice is yours. There's a reason why the OE set up connects the hoses to the core in the engine bay, one is to prevent such an occurrence of passengers getting burned. A slow leaky core is not as drastic as a hose exploding or slipping off.

Thank you, I'll keep this in mind