The previous owner of my Zed told me when I bought it that he'd had the heater bypassed but I've been feeling the cold lately & wanting to connect it all up again. First thing I wanted to do was to make sure the heater core was still there! I also didn't want to pull the whole dash just to check on this but there is another (well established & frequently discussed) way to get access to the heater core. Overall the Tech Section article How to remove the heater core without removing the dash is excellent, but being a real amateur, I had a bit of trouble getting started so I thought I'd share my discoveries with the other noobs on the forum. First up, location - Under the dash, driver's side is a bit inaccurate. The heater core is pretty close to the middle of the car, right up against the firewall, you can just access it from the driver's side foot-well. Looking into the driver's foot-well (of an auto): Shows the location of the A/C control unit that sits in front of the heater core. The Tech article claims it's possible to pull the core with the A/C ducts in place but there's no way I could have managed that (big hands): Pull the vent that leads from the dash to the door and undo one screw to make it easier to pull the two ducts from under the steering column: The narrower, more complicated looking duct looks like it's held up by three screws, but it's really only one, the other two are holding a sensor mount to the duct itself so leave them alone: I think this sensor measures ambient cabin temperature & it will probably need a bit of a clean - metho on a cotton tip will do the job. Before: After: (& no, that's not entirely my dodgy photography, the sensor was grey & fuzzy) At this point, the Tech article pretty much says to just undo all the screws on the A/C controller & bracket, heater-flap actuator and pipe cover, most of them blind but the following procedure will let you see what you're doing nearly every step of the way. Unplug the A/C controller from its harness & undo the two small screws holding it onto its bracket: The A/C controller will now just slide out, there's one cable that remains attached but the unit doesn't really get in your way if you leave it dangling by the foot-rest (auto or where you took the clutch pedal out of a manual). You now have "clear" access (the wiring harness is annoying but can be pushed out of the way as required) to the three main screws securing the heater-flap actuator. Undo these but don't try to remove the actuator: Turn the actuator a little bit anti-clockwise, now all 4 screws that secure the A/C controller bracket are visible (2 at bottom not pictured) & can be easily removed: There's only one blind screw left, at the top of the pipe cover: but its easy enough to find, if you hook one finger over the top of the cover, you'll quickly find a "channel" to guide a screwdriver in. Definitely use a narrow screwdriver, as the the shape of the firewall stops a stubby one from getting any purchase in the phillip's head. This is also the only screw that's a PITA to put back in, I highly recommend a strongly magnetic screwdriver or the blu-tac trick. Re-assembly of everything else is simply the reverse of the above. Its only now that we reach the point of working on the actual heater core. From this point on the Tech article really comes into its own & goes into much more detail so I refer you to it for further info. One final note: It is perfectly possible to do this with the driver's seat in place, just moved & tilted as far back as possible but if you're old (like me) or have any sort of back or shoulder problems, definitely pull the seat out so you can lie flat. Hope some of you find this useful.
The reason that many people pull the dash when doing this repair, is mostly because they can more easily repair the lifting front Demister Vent with it out of the car(it also allows a little bit more access to the Heater Box).
Great review but the pictures were a bit small, can you post up bigger ones or direct to somewhere bigger please? :zlove:
Larger Images Sorry, I just grabbed the defaults from Picasa. I can't seem to edit the starter post but below are resized images plus the links so you can open the pics yourself. Perhaps a moderator can update the starter post? Driver's footwell A/C Ducts Door vent Sensor screws Dirty, out-of focus sensor Clean sensor A/C controller bracket screws Flap Actuator screws A/C controller bracket screws Heater pipe cover screws
I do plan to pull my own dash for exactly that reason but this time around I just wanted to know whether I still have a heater core or if I needed to order a new one - didn't want to pull the whole dash just for that. Now that I know it's there though, do I trust it (& the tap)? Sent an email to the previous owner & waiting to find out whether the bypass was done because of a leak or "just in case".
I genuinely doubt that anyone could be so anal as to go to those extremes. If a by-pass has been done, you can bet it was necessary at the time. There is no obvious reason why a by-pass would be undertaken without some sign of a problem(after-all, if someone just simply didn't want a Heater, they can easily leave it turned off).:zlove: i
Mods, can we add this to the original in the Tech section or link to it so we can find it again in the future? Hopefully will never need it but just in case. Thanks
pdf version here: http://speedy.sh/3JvAQ/Beginners-Heater-Core-Removal.pdf gonna attempt this tomorrow (stupid clutch pedal in the way ) ha! ***MODS*** Feel free to download and add to tech setction, and delete this post if you wish.
