7
My '04 Tahoe's heater core took out the entire dashboard last February
I spent three days pulling apart my dash to replace a $45 part that GM designed to fail right behind the radio. The plastic housing cracked at 78k miles and dumped coolant all over the passenger floor. Dealer quoted me $1,200. Did it myself with YouTube and a socket set, but whoever thought routing that hose through the center console needs their head examined. Anyone else run into this on their GMT800?
3 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In3 Comments
angelafisher1mo ago
Oh come on, that hose routing makes total sense! They wanted to keep the core close to the passenger side for heat distribution. Plus the center console is the safest spot from crash damage. I actually swapped mine out at 95k and the plastic was still fine. Might be a batch issue but not a design flaw. YouTube videos just make it look harder than it is.
7
riley8607d ago
Actually, the heater core is usually on the passenger side in most front wheel drive cars, not the center. I swapped mine out on my '08 Accord at 120k and the plastic pipe cracked right at the firewall connection. That's a pretty common spot for failures across a lot of Honda models from that era. The center console routing isn't about crash protection either, it's just how they packaged the HVAC box under the dash. If you look at the service manual, they specifically call out using the proper o-rings and not overtightening the hose clamps. The plastic itself holds up fine if you don't crank down on it. But I'd still argue it's a pain to get to no matter how many times you do it.
2