WHY are heater cores so ard to access?

It's literally at the core of the car.. it shouldn't be so deep in if it's going to break as much as they do. It's such trouble...

It's because heater cores are stupid. Good cars are air cooled. :)
I've never had a heater core "break" - what kind of a car are you fixing?

my 96 Crown Vic P71 has a leaky heater core. to get it out you have to take the whole dash out.. it's hell in July. I couldn't get to it, I gave up.

did you check the firewall from the engine compartment?

Have you thought about cutting an access panel so that you can get in from the other side? Sometimes that works, and sometimes it won't. I cut access holes wherever I need to, and they are easy to hide when the job is done. The Crown Vic is eight years old already, so it's not likely to de-value it even if it's visible.

It Must be a Ford thing, My dads Heater Core went in his old Crown victoria, and we had to remove the Dashboard, same in the Mustangs of the early 90's. Its a bitch... I haven't had to replace one on any of my chevy's yet, but I dont think its too easy a job in any car.
-Jimmy

I haven't had to replace one on any of my chevy's yet, but I dont think its too easy a job in any car.
-Jimmy
Its easy on my car:
#1 take off air cleaner
#2 remove 4 self tapping screws
#3 remove cover plate
#4 pull out heater core and losen 2 hose clamps and remove hoses
#5 install new heater core and reassemble
#6 top off engine coolant to replace any coolant that was lost in the process

For me it was only difficut because my fingers were numb from working outside at -40 and i couldnt get a grip on the hoses to pull then off :swear:

I stand corrected! But I feel your pain.. Last Feb. my friend stopped over after attempting to change his fuel filter on his 98' taurus, he somehow managed to damage the fitting. nothing like fuel leaking on your hands when its below 0.

On The 90' Mustang GT we replaced the heater core during this past summer, the entire dash had to come off, and because it was leaking there was antifreeze in the heat ducts. when we pulled the dash off, antifreeze spilled out onto the floor and the vents had to be cleaned. AlohaRocky has the right idea, we used a zip tool to cut a removable access panel in the firewall incase it needs replacing again.. It would have been nice if we thought about that before taking the dash out.. but oh well..
-Jimmy

I stand corrected! But I feel your pain.. Last Feb. my friend stopped over after attempting to change his fuel filter on his 98' taurus, he somehow managed to damage the fitting. nothing like fuel leaking on your hands when its below 0. -Jimmy

The Taurus is simply a mechanic's nightmare. Every part on it was engineered to rip the skin off a mechanic's hands, and be accessible only after removing half the engine. All engineers involved with that design should be executed, and future designs be approved by the people that have to work on them. Try changing a front engine mount on one, or heaven forbid, the power-steering hose. Someone even came up with a quick-fix part for that one, because it's almost impossible to do otherwise. I had a 90, and am so happy it ended my misery by catching fire. I didn't even try to put it out.

I stand corrected! But I feel your pain.. Last Feb. my friend stopped over after attempting to change his fuel filter on his 98' taurus, he somehow managed to damage the fitting. nothing like fuel leaking on your hands when its below 0.
-Jimmy
Theres a special tool on the market for doing that, Ford In there infinate wisdom desided that it would be nice to redesign the fittings to use metal clips so you didnt have to worry about breaking the plasic ones , unfortunaly they look very similar to the older style clips used by GM What you need to use was one of these, the red one:
http://www.mactools.com/ProductImages/FLTS893_d.jpg

My guess is you tried to just pull the fitting out and you bent the metal retaining tabs back and had to replace the whole section of fuel line. Just once I would like to meet an engineer from ford :nono:

Trust me I know your pain I cracked the carb casing last time I changed my fuel filter, unfortunatly I thought it could wait until the spring but no, It had to go on a -25*C day and needed to be changed. There was a fucking air bubble in the casting so when i tightened the filter housing it cracked, cost me $720 for a new carb :swear: :swear:

haha...had to do that in my thunderbird. I think it would be easier in a crown vic since their isnt a center console in the way.

because the guys that design them don't have to fix them
worst ones i have done are most of the fords truck and cars
some of the chevy blazers
dodge durangos
jeep chereekes
and others i can't or just don't want to remember
have lost lots of skin

I've had to do the core in my Mustang twice. 1st time was tough. We didn't pull the dash all the way off. 2nd time, we dropped the steering column, and pulled the dash. Made it so much easier. In our old family car, 89 Buick Century, all you have to do is remove the glove box. My brother had the whole thing done in about 90 minutes. Our old 77 Camaro was pretty easy. It didn't have factory AC, so you could access the box for the heater core from under the hood.

You need to pull half the dash and engine compartment apart to get to my heater core. I REALLY hope it doesn't go out. I do know the F-350 Powerstrokes are a BITCH to do a heater core on.

Try doing the heater core on a mazda...........................

Try doing the heater core on a mazda...........................
LOL. I think I'd rather pay to get it taken care of then go threw the hell of doing it again.

because the guys that design them don't have to fix them
worst ones i have done are most of the fords truck and cars
some of the chevy blazers
dodge durangos
jeep chereekes
and others i can't or just don't want to remember
have lost lots of skin
The Jeep Cherokee was the worst one I have done.
The easiest was my '87 Mustang (no AC). Just undo 2 little screws, pop off 2 hose clamps and the thing slides out like a dream. Literally, it takes 5 minutes to change, including draining the coolant.