Help needed on replacing the heater hose lines on my 1983 GL Wagon?

[chuckl10101]

Folks: Ever since I bought my Subaru from my late best friend before he passed away. And I haven't tried to replace the heater core because I think that if I take the whole dash assy. apart, I'd never get it back together again LOL. However, I was thinking "Maybe it was one of the heater hoses that had the leak and not the heater core at all". My friend had just taken a short piece of heater hose and looped it between the inlet and outlet as we have probably all done at one time or another. Anyway, back to the heater hoses. I thought that I'd just go outside and put new hoses through the firewall and into the heater core, which should be right there on the passenger side of the car as that is where the heater core is located. Not a big job. Boy was I wrong. I stated looking and there was NO heater hoses coming through the firewall. I FINALLY found the inlet/outlets for the heater hose on the engine are wayyyyyy over by the steering column on the drivers side. And I started looking under the dash, and there they are, two heater hoses that come out of the heater core, then go all the way across the car under the dash, and go out through the firewall there. So anyway, my question is this. Will I still have to take the whole dash etc out of the car just to get to the hoses as well?? If so, I'll just replace both hoses and the heater core while I have the car apart. Thanks for ANY tips on replacing these hoses without having to tear into the whole dashboard assy just to change the hoses. Thanks a lot, Chuck

[scoobiedubie]

You might want to rethink any project where you tear apart your dash because it is unlikely that you will ever get it back together again.  There are too many plugs and connectors for that to happen.  You might want to go over again, exactly what the symptoms are to cause you to want to replace the heater hoses inside he car.  A simple smell of coolant inside the car, does not mean either a heater core or hoses require replacement, for instance.  There are all kinds of points where coolant can leak around the engine.  Any leaks in the engine compartment can easily come inside the vehicle through the venting.

[the sucker king]

no you don't need to remove the dash to do what you want to do. The heater core is not where you stated you think it is. It is basically right in front of your gear shifter, between the fire wall and your radio console. You should be able to see the in/out water lines on the watercock somewhere to the right of your gas pedal.

If you end up replacing the heater core, you will need to remove the dash, and it is a pretty big pain in the arse, but is doable

[suprjohn]

i am in the middle of this right now on my '89 DL wagon. i had to remove the dash to remove a bunch of mouse habitat, and while i'm at it, i'm going to replace the hoses and inspect the heater core.

 

i got replacement hoses from rock auto for a good price.weathers been too bad to work on it, plus i have a torn rotator cuff.

 

john

[Luvn737s]

Is there a photo tutorial of how to remove the heater core?

[djellum]

there have been people who have said they accessed the heater core by cutting the plastic side out next to the pedal, then replaced it and glued the plastic back on.  I don't know for sure what models, but search on the site here and see.  I have never done it myself, only read about it so your on your own there.

[jonas]

there have been people who have said they accessed the heater core by cutting the plastic side out next to the pedal, then replaced it and glued the plastic back on.  I don't know for sure what models, but search on the site here and see.  I have never done it myself, only read about it so your on your own there.

^ This.  That is how i did it and it came out fine. Easy to do.  Didn't bother putting the plastic back on and it works just fine.

[ferox]

Coolant leakage into the interior is typically from a leaky coolant control valve behind a kick panel to the right of the accelerator pedal.  That would be the first place to check.

 

If in fact you do need to get to the heater core, you just need to pull the dash back from the firewall.  When I did mine I dropped the steering column, removed the center console, unscrewed what I needed to and pulled the dash back from the passenger side.  I did not have to pull it back too far to gain access to the heater core.  It was a lot less work than I anticipated.

[jono]

Well jonas would be the best person to provide a picture of his end result due to not replacing/glueing plastic back in place. I have amate who has done the job - swung entire dash assy from one end, there are bolt downs near fuse panel and behind the vents for demister below windscreen.

 

I have done Brumby dash removes two or three times EA81 models and is much the same, three 10mm head bolts below screen, one or two bolts holding dash assy to side of car, undo a few wire plugs taking digi pics of details as i went along, a few bendy wire loom holding loops, odd cable disconnect. 2 hours out, 2.5 back to running fine again. EA82 and XT series is scary to me, uninitiated at reassy anyway, pulled a few EA82 apart - with some violence

[Luvn737s]

I get a steamy ride with fogged windows when I select hot on the temp selector, but it goes away when cold is selected. No embarrasing wetness though around the floor area. Of course it is Arizona, so you only select heat 2 days out of each year.

Edited December 25, 2013 by Luvn737s