How to change a heater core in a 1994-2001 Dodge Ram?

Answer 1

Im 16 and i did it today with my friend. i bought the core at o'riellys this morning and went home and did it. it took us about 5 hours, about 1 hour to get to the core, then about another 2 hours to get the old one out. all i did was cut the pipes on the outside of the firewall as well as i could. then i cut them inside the cab with my hacksaw right before the pipes went into the heater core. then you pull the core straight up out of the box. then i had trouble gettin the pipes out but it just took some time to wiggle them out. then put the new one in about an hour and hooked up all the tubes. it only took us about 20 minutes to put everything back in place. then added some antifreeze and its hot as hell now. so over all it went pretty smoothly. i didnt have to take out the heater box, charge the a/c, or take the dash out of the truck. so did it about $840 bucks cheaper then what the shop wanted to do it for. it was worth it.

Thanks for putting up this post about replacing the heater core. I have never attempted this kind of job before and found it extremely helpful. It took quite a bit of time to do the job, but it was worth it and I'd definitely do it again.

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I was very hesitant about doing this. I heard how hard it was and debated having someone else do it. However, the cost of $1000 for someone else to do it was a bit steep. I figured if it took me two days to accomplish, it was still worth the savings. In the end, it was fairly straight forward and easy, except the for the bracket that holds the heater core pipes on the inside of the firewall. It took me longer to remove that one screw then to nearly do the whole job.

You don't have to mess with the A/C or even remove the HVAC box out if you don't want to. It's probably a good idea to do it, but I didn't, as there is nothing wrong with mine. Do steps 1 - 7 on the post below to remove the dash. I took a strap and hooked it to the dash on the passenger side where it's secured by the bolts under the kick panel (On the metal bracket, not the plastic). I attached the other end to the grab bar and used this to gently hold the dash away from the firewall and off the ground. Once you disconnect the hoses from the engine compartment, you can remove the heater core from the top and slide the new one in.

Here are a few tips that I discovered that helped me. When removing the heater hoses in the engine compartment, I just cut them with a razor knife. The hose on the driver side had plenty of hose to just re-attach to the new core. The passenger side, probably would've had enough too, but I just replaced it. On my truck that hose had two sections joined together by an adapter and clamps. Not sure if that's a stock set up, or someone else before me did that. So replacing the passenger side hose with new hose was very simple. This is much easier then trying to peel those hoses off the heater core. As I mentioned, the hardest part was removing the screw that holds the bracket and metal heater core tubing on the inside of the truck. If you have a flexible screw driver it may do the trick. Nothing at the local parts store came close. I eventually cut the tubes as close to the firewall as possible (with my Dremmel) and removed them from the engine compartment. The heater core just then lifted out allowing more room to make war with that little screw and bracket. When you're ready to put the new core in, push the core down in the hvac box and at the same time feed the new tubes through the firewall. One last tip: when it comes time to reattach the top of the dash, start with the middle screw. In all, it took me about 5-6 hours, most of that was fighting with that one screw. I could probably do it again in about 3.

AnswerI changed the heater core in my 1996 Dodge truck yesterday. The book calls for 6 hours labor for a mechanic with the proper tools and knowledge of how to get everything off and back on again. It took me 8 hours. The best thing to do is take it to the dealership and let them do it! AnswerThis is for you guys out there that are afraid to change this on your own. I have a 2001 Ram 1500. My heater core went out last year and I didn't have the money for a shop to do it for me. I ordered a heater core from ROCKAUTO.COM for 63.00 and a A/C evaporator core for 120.00. Which these two items are in the same heater box under the dash. Now mind you I only wanted to do this one time so made sence to put all new parts into this at this time. Me a friend decided to tackel this project and within two hours I was back on the road. Beleive it or not this is true. I was told by everybody I talked to that this was a 8 hour job and I shouldn't try it myself. Boy am I glad I did. This was not hard at all and in the first hour we had the HVAC box out of the truck. Putting the cores in the HVAC box was a breeze. All we did was take all screws out of glove box area, take out bottom dash bolts out of kick plates on drivers and passenger side, and take out all screws from top of dash next to the glass. This makes the dash able to move away from the glass enough to wiggel the HVAC box out of truck. With alittle trial and error you can do this very easy. I would change another one again if I had to. I hope this can help some of you and give you the courage to try this on your own. I searched the web for answers forever and never found much to go on. Also you can save a ton of money by doing it yourself. Good Luck

I have the Dodge repair manuals for for my 98.5 and they say that the complete dash has to be removed to repair/replace anything in the heating/AC box. I have the smell in the cab but no wet carpets yet.

AnswerHeater Core remove/replace in dodge 1500 truck 1995-01. I can pull it in 3.5 hours. putting it back takes about 2 hours, plus charging the AC, about one more hour more. Having a friend around really helps. Disconnect the battery before attempting any work to avoid a short.

1)Remove first screw on plastic door sill on both sides. (the things on top of rug where door closes)Remove kick panels.

2)Remove panel under steering wheel.

3)Remove two nuts holding up steering wheel.

4)Remove screws where windshield meets dash board.

5)Remove 2 bolts left and right under dash but against sides of car (under kick panels).

5a) There is a square box in the center of the dash by the floor. Take it off and take those nuts off. And disconnect the wire harness and the get the panel loose and down out of the way.

6)Dashboard is now loose and can be pulled towards the seats.

7)On right side of dash hook a wire way up to screw that holds moulding clips, or pull the dash towards the seat and put a jackstand under the passenger side.

8)The whole heater box is now visible.

9) You've got to remove vacuum lines, controls, and electric plugs from heater box.

10) Now the secret: there are 2 screws holding it to fire wall on inside (one has a ground wire attached). The other is in the upper right hand corner facing up. The easiest way to get to the bolts holding the ground wire is to take out the glove compartment and then take out the airbag.

11) there are 4 nuts holding it from engine side of firewall(one is behind the electric panel on the passanger side). Remove all four of these.

12) Remove heater hose clamps with a hose clamp plier. This will take time, these clips are hard to get off.

13) Drain the AC freon.

14)the AC lines require a special tool that costs $9-12 at parts store. the kit has 6 plastic widgets. use the one that fits. play with an AC fitting near the radiator for practice first.

15) you should be able to pull the heater box out now.

16) Remember the dashboard is just pulled up high enough on the right to get at the heater box.

17) It is a good idea to change the A/C evaporator core while doing this job. They are both in the same box.

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I just put a new heater core in my 96 Dodge Ram 1500. It does take about two hours to pull the dash. I didn't pull the hole thing, just loosened the drivers side bolt under the dash. And then swiveled the passenger side out, and held it away using a bungee cord. That will get the dash away enough to get behind it, and pull the core. I just cut the tubes on the core so I didn't have to remove the HAVC box. And cut the hose's under the hood, and just pulled the tubes out. I got two foot of 5/8 heater hose, four clamps, and two hose connector's. I cut the hose into one foot piece's, and feed them through the holes in the firewall and attached them to the lines I cut. I know this is hard to do to a $70 part. But cut the tubes down on the new core and clamp the hoses on. Then slide the new core in the HAVC box. Then all you have to do is put the dash back together. By the way, cutting the tubes down on the new core will void the warranty. But I could buy six or seven heather cores for what it would cost me to take it to a garage and have it done. And I don't like screwing around with AC lines. Which you have to do to take the HAVC box out of the truck, and do it the right way. As long as it work's and it's cheap I will do it. My truck has 276,000 miles on it. So you can see why I don't like to dump a lot of money into it. It cost me $80.44, and took four hours to do. The book said it would take six hours. So I'm happy.

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I replaced the heater core in my 2001 Ram 1500 this weekend with the help of a friend. There are several Dodge Forums on the internet that show you how to do this, as well as the helpful answers here. There are some conflicting points that I wanted to add my input to. The first one is, my truck (and I imagine most others) had an additional bracket holding the dash to the floor hump in the middle that I didn't see mentioned in some articles. Second, there are at least 10 different wiring connectors under the dash that must be unhooked in order to raise the dash high enough to get at the air box containing the heater core. Third, holding the air box in are 2 studs inside the cab, and FOUR studs accessible from under the hood that must be removed in order to pull the air box out enough to replace the heater core. One is next to the heater hoses, two also hold the receiver/dryer, and one is behind the electrical panel near the fender. Fourth, when moving the dash around to get it out of the way, be careful not to stress it or bang on it too much or you will quickly become familiar with another problem that plagues Ram owners, the infamous cracked dash. Lastly, no matter how hard I tried I could NOT move the air box away from the firewall enough to get the new heater core in. In my opinion the A/C system MUST be discharged and disconnected at the evaporator in order to get enough room to put the heater core in. The first heater core I ordered had some sort of swivel arrangement for the inlet/outlet tubes that may make it possible to install without having to disconnect the A/C, however I didn't care for the flimsy way the tubes were connected; it looked to me like it would leak. It could have just been the one I got, but I returned it and got a different brand that had solid tubes like the factory core. I had the heater core replaced once in 2004 at the dealer at a cost of over $600, and I've read of quotes nearer $1000 to have this done today. This time I spent a total of $125 for a heater core, A/C disconnect tools, and 2 cans of R134a. It was not an easy job, and you will definitely need a friend, but it is do-able. This job took about 6 or 7 hours mostly because of having to locate and disconnect wiring harnesses, and time spent coming to the conclusion that the A/C had to be disconnected....if I had to do it again I could probably do it in 4.