Hey guys, I knew I was losing Antifreeze somewhere, but just couldn't figure out where. I could smell it, but didn't see any tell tale signs on the ground, or on the engine, or in the oil. I had replaced the water pump about 3 weeks ago, and thought I had it fixed. So for 2 weeks I have been refilling wondering where all this water was going. Well, I found out this morning. I pulled up my floor mat on the passenger side and low and behold the carpet is soaked underneath it. Do you guys think its my heater core leaking out? Its been pretty chilly up here the last week or 2 so I have been using the heater in the morning. I get good heat too. Its not like its flooding the truck inside, just enough to make the carpet noticeably wet, and it smells like antifreeze. If so whats involved with replacing it. Guys here at work said heater cores can be a real pain in th a$$ to replace. Any tips, tricks, hints to doing the work? Or am I better off letting someone else do the work? The heater core its self is only 29.99. And I am pretty handy around the cars....

I changed the heater core in my ranger the winter before it died, and it was very easy. There is a panel up under the passenger side of the dash that you remove, and the core is above it. Its not that difficult to change. Just have to make sure that when you pull the old one, that you make sure to not spill any fluid that might still be in it. And then when you put the new one in, make sure to not bend the tubes on the new core when you put it in. It took me all of about 90 minutes to change mine, and that included flushing the coolant system out. At least you have heat, when mine went out, I had no heat, in the middle of januaury, w/ lows in the low 20's/ That was a whole bunch of fun.

Ok, you have a little plastic box by the footwell on the pass side, 3 screws on the bottom, 2 on top. take those out, and pull the bottom towards you..you have to pull the drain slot out of the firewall, but then it comes out. Take the hoses off (duh) and push them in. the heater core will be pull out able. put the new one in, clean the little tray that you unscrewed, clean out the drain hole, it's plugged if you have a wet floor, and pop it back together..like adam said, 90,mins. If this makes no sense, print this, take it to your truck, all be clear. :)

Paul

On many cars it is difficult to change the heater core but the ranger isn't one of them. It takes about 15min. Just be carfule and don't crimp the tubes on the new one when you are putting the heater hoses back on. Oh yeah, alot of time you can get either an aluminum or brass one, i would go with the aluminum one.

I dont know what the difference is, but when I got my core, I got a brass one. I just got what was in stock at where ever I got it.