my heater core is bad I smell coolant evertime I put my ac on and also with the heater in the winter.i got ac only on the drivers side and heat only on the passenger side.what would a shop charge me to replace it?

 

You're looking at $500 or so in labor because the entire dash has to be removed.

 

Sounds like your a/c evaporator might be leaking as well.

 

To just replace the heater core you're looking at 1304.67 because it's 5.7 hours to remove the dash and heater core, and you have to evac and recharge the ac system, and Refill coolant. It would be foolish not to replace the evaporator while you're in there, that would put the total at 1490. That's pep boys pricing including 10% tax and shop supplies.

 

I was able to replace the heater core on my 1997 Ram without disconnecting the evaporator, even though the DIY and everyone else said I would have to do so. It was a tight fit rife with swearing, but I did it.

Is the Third Gen that much different that it can't be done?

 

Labor guide shows removal of the evaporator case/ heater core case is needed to service the heater core. It can't be removed without evacuating the AC. There may be ways around it for the heater core, maybe some cheats to pull the core without removing the case from the truck. But he wanted to know what a shop would charge and shops go by labor guides. The price I quoted was straight out of Mitchell for labor times, at our 102/hr labor rate plus I think 109 for the heater core, and 139 for the evaporator, plus coolant, 59.99 evac and recharge plus shop supplies.

 

Understood.

For that price, the shop should at least offer a handy (if you know what I'm saying).

 

that's actually fairly cheap compared to other shops. Everywhere goes by either Mitchell or alldata, which are relatively close on labor times. Shop labor rates vary from 80-165 an hour, some independent shops may be cheaper on labor rate but most I've seen around here are 100-120 , but they get you on parts markup.

But yeah I get what you're saying.

 

Do you have a dual zone system? Seems like you have more than a leak problem if you are getting heat on one side and cooling on the other.

 

Here's what's weird about these systems, when the refrigerant runs low, the driver's side gets most of the cool air, the passenger side is warm. I had to refill my dad's a/c not long ago and it had the same symptom. Just google it, I did and it came up with a link to this very forum. Three guys in one thread had the same problem and they all fixed it by adding more R134a.