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You can also use craigslist under the automotive services to find a good independent mechanic. I would be willing to say you could probably get the whole thing done with parts and labor for under $300. $1,500 is beyond ridiculous, more like highway robbery.
Depends where the heater core is located. I know on my car the a/c evaporator is located deep inside the dash, book time on the repair is 10 hours at the dealer @ $100/hr. Then there is the parts. However the heater core is a 45 min swap because it's located behind an access panel in the passenger compartment.
OP, for your reference, I've attached the heater core replacement procedure, you could take a weekend and do it. Also I would recommend picking up a Haynes Manual at the local autozone or Advanced Auto Parts, that will have more pictures.
Looking thru those threads there is some evidence that just unplugging the heater core lines might free the blockage. So you could try that. In addition, it might also be the water pump, as some others have reported similar symptoms. I would start by feeling the heater core hoses after driving the car. If one is hot and the other is cold you know it's a clog in there somewhere.
And although is wonderful advice, the OP hasn't even come back on yet to answer any of our basic questions to spare us any further "pontifications", such as year, make, model...
After all the pontificating here about how heater cores are only "failed" if they are leaking, it's obvious a lot of folks don't know what's going on with the coolants and metallurgy of the alloy heater cores and other metals in the motors today. We're not dealing with cast iron blocks/heads and copper/brass radiators and heater cores anymore ... haven't for a long time. The old diagnostics and guidelines of what works and what fails don't apply anymore. There are serious metal transfer issues going on in current production cooling systems and these greatly affect the heat transfer ability of the blocks, heads, radiators, and heater cores.
Heater cores are basicly made from aluminum or plastic, which are both compatible with the antifreeze, if you were to scale the core and reduce heat transfere you would also scale the block and the radiator all in which would cause overheating. If the core was plugged then the same would be found in the radiator and block, the only way this would happen would be if the coolant had been mixed with something uncompatable. It would take a lot of scaling to reduce heat transfere in a core.
Oh, it's a 2004 Mercury Sable, of course! And the OP mentioned it in the original post. Somehow, we got away from that when I read the other posts.
I'm fixing to replace/repair a heater core/valve in my old Chrysler and I was directed to get at it though my glove box. I haven't looked into it much yet.
Someone mentioned buying a Haynes manual. I like a shop owners manual myself, but they're more expensive.
Why in the world weren't these things just designed to be replaced from the firewall?
Oh, it's a 2004 Mercury Sable, of course! And the OP mentioned it in the original post. Somehow, we got away from that when I read the other posts.
I'm fixing to replace/repair a heater core/valve in my old Chrysler and I was directed to get at it though my glove box. I haven't looked into it much yet.
Someone mentioned buying a Haynes manual. I like a shop owners manual myself, but they're more expensive.
Why in the world weren't these things just designed to be replaced from the firewall?
"Why in the world weren't these things just designed to be replaced from the firewall?"
Because they don't want you doing it, they lose money if you can fix it.
They used to be real easy to change.
It's hard to even change plugs on most cars anymore.
Heater cores are basicly made from aluminum or plastic, which are both compatible with the antifreeze, if you were to scale the core and reduce heat transfere you would also scale the block and the radiator all in which would cause overheating. If the core was plugged then the same would be found in the radiator and block, the only way this would happen would be if the coolant had been mixed with something uncompatable. It would take a lot of scaling to reduce heat transfere in a core.
Sorry, Roaddog, but anybody who is actively working in the automotive marketplace today knows that there are metal transferrence issues with the dissimilar metals used in todays motors and radiators.
It's not uncommon in certain makes and models for this to show up as a failure to transfer heat properly from the coolant to the radiator surfaces.
The problem shows up even though the cars have the correct coolant, even factory original dealer supplied coolant which is without minerals or contamination. Further, the problem is totally removed from the old problems of "scaling" due to contamination or improper coolant. It's strictly a "plating" issue due to the dissimilar metals used in the cars, and how it affects the particular items varies depending upon the production run of materials and combination in a given car.
It's not uncommon ... say in VW/Audi products ... for the motor and radiator to work flawlessly and the heater core to not deliver heat, even though the water flow is normal through the core and the thermostat/water pump are functioning normally with a completely filled and bled out cooling system. Again, the problem is not unique to this brand of cars, I've seen it in MB's, BMW's, Volvo's, and others.
In my visits to local radiator shops to find a solution to the failed heaters, they tell me that they see this problem across the automotive marketplace. I made my "heater core flushing" set-up as a way to minimize the costs of this heater problem to the used cars dealers for who I do a lot of work on these marques ... and found out that the factory supplied "acid flush" (which may do the job, or not) from MB was food grade Citric Acid. The difficulty is finding an acid that will remove the plating layer without being so aggressive that it eats the block, head, and gaskets/seals throughout the cooling system. For my shop, we buy Citric Acid (in 50 lb bags) from a supplier to the meat industry ... it's sold as a cleaner for making tripe ... at less cost for the 50lb bag than MB gets for their 16 oz Coolant Flush container at the parts counter.
Now, case in point: I posted on this thread because this "plating" problem is EXACTLY what happened in my 1994 Ford Ranger pick-up. Over a couple year period, the heater slowly lost it's ability to deliver heat. When newer, it could blast you out of the cab, but it got to a point where it couldn't even defrost the windshield on max temp/max blower. The "fix" was to replace the heater core, which was readily accessible and inexpensive in the aftermarket. Unfortunately, we have discovered that the aftermarket heater cores ... and we've now used three ... have an even worse plating problem than the OE Ford heater core. They last a year or two at the most before they will not transfer heat properly and need to be replaced.
Apparently, whatever the aluminum alloy used in the manufacture of these units is not compatible long term with the alloys and iron used in the rest of the cooling system. And that's with a properly functioning radiator, water pump, heat transfer from the motor, correct thermostat, correct radiator cap, OE factory coolant or Prestone mixture at correct dilution, etc, etc, etc. There was no sign of scaling in the system; in fact, when we finally had to replace the OE water pump (at 150,000 miles), the block surfaces were clean as were the t-stat housing and seating area.
For the OP, there still remains the questions regarding proper coolant level, water pump and thermostat operation, climate controls working properly, proper system pressure/cap, etc. But absent any of those problems, a failed heater core without being a leaking heater core is a distinct possibility.
After all the pontificating here about how heater cores are only "failed" if they are leaking, it's obvious a lot of folks don't know what's going on with the coolants and metallurgy of the alloy heater cores and other metals in the motors today.
Well why don't you spare us the attitude and give us the facts, then. Since nobody knows ****, according to you. In fact, it appears that everyone's answer except yours, is dead wrong. So let's hear it.
Get the part yourself. I recently needed a computer module for a Chevy and the dealer price for the part was $835. I shopped around and found one with a longer warranty for $150. That may be the main reason for your high price quote.
My heater is doing the same thing. Just barely puts out any heat. The entire cooling system was flushed out, pressure tested and works fine. However there is still no heat. I can occaisionally smell coolant when I turn on the heater, so I suspect that the core is leaking. However there does not seem to be any noticable loss of coolant, so the leak must be tiny.
I also learned that the old GM 100,000 mile coolant destroys your cooling system (a least that is what the Chevy delaer service guy said). I got that stuff out of my car after about 5 years, but it had already done a lot of damage. I suspect that this may be the cause of my problem since the heater core was never replaced.
Well why don't you spare us the attitude and give us the facts, then. Since nobody knows ****, according to you. In fact, it appears that everyone's answer except yours, is dead wrong. So let's hear it.
So let me ask you, sir ... what do you bring to this thread besides your attitude? Do you have a suggestion as to what may be wrong, it's causation, or how to fix it for an economical cost? Do you have any suggestions for diagnosing the problem?
Further, what part of my posts regarding the diagnostics, causation, or possible repair options (which agree with many posters here) do you not understand in my posts #14 and #27?
The difference, sir, between my posts and yours is that I offered an explanation of what might be a problem in the car and how to approach isolating that problem and to fix it. My approach is different because I know that a heater core can "fail" and not be externally leaking as some have asserted here.
The difference, also, is that my posts reflect over 40 years of actively owning, managing, and being the lead tech in my own independent automotive repair shop specializing in high end cars. From that shop I've "grown" 5 successful shops owned and operated by my former techs that I trained, encouraged, and helped with their business plan as well as their day-to-day operations ... and I'm proud of my long-term contribution to the trade which has made my livlihood possible for many years. I've also confidently turned over much of my retail clientele to them so that their cars can be properly and fairly maintained and repaired. Can you say the same about whatever it is you do for a living?
Recently, I shut down the "retail" portion of my shop business to focus upon a select group of car collections and dealerships that I work for. In doing so, my shop is the "last resort" for a number of dealers that depend upon my skills to fix cars that haven't been fixed at dealerships or other independents, and wind up in the aftermarket. I see more problems with cars in a month than most folks will see in a lifetime of car ownership, even if they're car nuts and have owned a lot of cars ... or tried their hand at buying and selling a few for some extra bucks. The dealers are looking to me to find and fix the problems economically so that they can maximize their profit on the cars they've bought at auctions or directly from the used car managers of new dealerships.
So, in fact, I've seen a lot of cooling system problems since the 1980's when aluminum/plastic radiators came into the industry. And the cars I get typically are the ones that have had water pumps, thermostats, hoses, belts, remote upper radiator tanks, radiator caps, and other items in futile efforts to keep the cars from overheating problems in warm/hot weather with the A/C cranking away. And as clean as the radiators (and heater cores, for climate heating problems) look, and as much as dealerships and radiator shops claim the flow rate is "good" by whatever means they test them ... and they flush them to get out particulates/foreign matter and replace with correct coolant ... they've got metal plating /transfer problems. The fix in my shop has generally been to do extended hot flushing with citric acid, and if that doesn't work (and it doesn't, sometimes) ... then replacement of the radiator or heater core is required.
You cannot "hot tank" an aluminum/plastic radiator or heater core as you could the old copper/brass units. And, absent owning the *** and replacement seal for the plastic tanks, you cannot take these units apart to "rod" them out and then re-seal them effectively. But even rodding out the aluminum radiators may not effectively remove the plating inside the tubes, and some have internal baffling that prevents rodding them out.
Today's coolant additive packs last a lot longer than the old products of just a few years ago ... but they haven't kept pace with the loads imposed upon them by the metals in today's motors. The best advice I can give somebody with a newer car is to change the coolant every two years ... just like many manufacturer's maintenance schedules used to do.
Further, I know Ford has had problems in this specific area ... everything from manifold leakage problems on some motors to cylinders on the Powerstroke diesels. We didn't see these types of problems years ago with iron motors and copper/brass radiators, especially if the car owners used quality antifreeze and distilled or soft water.
My advice to the OP remains the same: (1) verify the proper operation of the climate control system, and (2) verify hot coolant flow to and through the heater core. If both are correct, then the heater core has failed and needs to be replaced. And it can be done for a lot less money than the dealer quoted the OP.
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, it's a 2004 Mercury Sable, of course! And the OP mentioned it in the original post. Somehow, we got away from that when I read the other posts.
