My heater core went out D: And i started on it last week. Has anybody else replaced theirs yet and have any tips? I already removed the whhhoooollee dash, while im at it i will run some extra wires such as for a future cb radio. I am kinda stuck on doing the ac lines from the evaporator. Does anybody have any tips? Thanks!

 

I think you are a first at this, I have been on the forum for a long time and never heard of anyone having issues.

 

Thats what i thought when i tried to search the forum for heater core Issues. The heater core instructions are very bad in the Chiltons in case anybody wants to know. It explains everything but the connections for the ac under the hood, and the process of removing steering column. In the chiltons, it doesnt even say to remove steering wheel at all!
It does have about 135,000 on it tho. I think the previous owner used it alot in the cold environment because they had the block heater option on it.

 

My 05 has been in cold climate its entire life, and the heater core on mine works A+ still.
Sucks that it went out, I plan to get mine flushed at somepoint

 

The first issue was the smell of antifreeze. I smelled it for a day and couldnt recognize the smell but i knew i smelled that smell before. Then it came to me, it was antifreeze. At the same time, i once in a while heard a weird noise. I came to realize that it was draining fluid allllll over my drivers floor board and thats what the noise was.

 

I finally got the entire hvac box off the firewall. The hardest part was actually removing the ac lines off the evaporator. You have to use a ac/fuel line quick disconnect tool to push the spring back (just like an air hose fitting) It took over a half hour to remove the two. Then the next hard part is that theres 3 bolts (10mm heads) to remove the heater core from the firewall. Two of them are very visible and easy to remove from under the hood. Theres a third one that is lower then the other two. Its like right behind the engine. verryyy big pain to remove!!! I will not put that bottom bolt back on when i put the hvac back on. While im replacing the heater core, i am going to replace the evaporater too because i dont want it to go out in the future if i didnt damage it when trying to remove the ac lines because we kept pulling. Alot of money for evap (250), but i would rather spend that than to have my truck down for another week! so far my truck has been parked for about two weeks. It should be done this weekend because the evap core should come in tonight. Ill post pics if anybody wants some because i havent seen anyone that has accomplished this task before on this new of a dakota.

 

Wellllllll...... I got the new heater core in a week ago, and i found out the heater core wasnt the problem! But i didnt find out till I put everything back together and it started leaking, but this time it was only dripping and not actually pouring like before. But it was pretty bad tho, but not as bad as before. I figured that it was the aluminum lines that go from the heater core to the rubber heater hoses. SOOOO. I bought new aluminum lines from dodge for about 40 bucks, expensive but thats the only place that has them. It also came with new clips and everything. I then bought the hoses at auto zone for 15 a piece. I know its the aluminum lines, so im buying new hoses for peace of mind. It took me only 2 hours to remove that dash this time, a lot less time then last time.

 

For anyone thats paying attention, the hardest part i think was removing the ac lines again. Last time when i removed that dash, i had to remove a nut behind the engine. When i put it all back together i didnt put that nut back on purpose, so when i removed the heater core again, it was fairly easy. Just time consuming.

 

It sounds like you have had a hell of a time with this project. Thanks for being the first to tackle the sumb!tch.

 

Did you have to actually break the a/c lines and lose the refrigerant?