So I made a thread a while back about my car not having any heat and they thought it might be the thermostat mixer. It wasn't, it was the heater core. They couldn't get any coolant to flow through it, so it's clogged somehow. Anyway, warranty job, so they are replacing it. It's buried in the dash, so here is what my car looks like right now!



Here is the center console. Too bad I'm not replacing my radio!



This in an air bag equppied A-Pillar. You can see the mounting. It blows straight down.



This is the electric power steering system. It's mounted right on the pillar, and adds force to the actual column. The speed sensor controller is right there too.



Here is what it looks like from through the windshield



And lastly, I thought this was interesting given the work I did trying to make a center dash gauge pod. This is the underside of the dash. That a big sheet of simple sound insulation there in the center. There is nothing else there. One could easily cut into the center of the dash and make a recessed-mounted, very good looking gauge pod.



I should have the car back on Tuesday. They said it took about 3 hours to do the tear down.

 

That's a heck of a job...hope you don't get it back with more rattles

 

What a nightmare!

 

how to please...lol, that would be funny

 

Dude My Heater Core Got Replaced And Came Back With More Rattles....swear To God! Lol

 

This happened to me a few months back, it took countless trips back to the dealership to get the dash fitted together correctly. 2 different dealerships with multiple trips to both and I still dont think the trim peices are as tight as they once were... My cobalt hates me and I hate it.... The worst part is my mom used to make the parts (or similar parts) at delphi that they had to replace and I remember her always saying that if quality control didnt test them right it cost the company a fortune because they had to strip the car to fix the problem. She used to gripe because half of the units that came of the cell didnt make it past quality conrol. I guess everything in my car was built on a monday.

 

thankfully someone else is tearing that down and putting it back together....
Was it Monday while you took the pics..??

 

The mechanic doing the job is the same guy that always gets my jobs at my dealer. Actually, if you haven't noticed, there is usually one mechanic in each GM Goodwrench shop that unofficially "specializes" in either one type of car or repair. This guy does most of the Cobalt stuff. He told me the best one he ever got was an aftermarket power window installation that fried the BCM. Took him a ton of labor hours to rewire the crappy aftermarket tap job.

 

The Cobalt is fun to drive and Mod with factory parts but some of the aftermarket parts we need to research whether or not it will affect our computers!!!!

 

i broke my heater core by downshifting from third. When i first got my car i thought it pulled harder when i would let the rpm's go all the way down then throw it into second. Well that makes the fricken engine jump hard and thats how it happened. I didnt even have a motot mount at the time. Im lucky thats all i broke..

 

damn that is crazy. be glad you didnt have to do that yourself. I have a rattle that sounds like is coming from the driverside wheel well but havnt been able to find it yet. I thought it was some plastic breather piece but removed it and its still there. However it only does it when its windy so I know its something that is loose but have no clue what. Will have to take it to the dealership again for them to try and diagnose it

 

I manage a collision center and always hated having to do heater cores when I was on the shop floor. It is not hard, just very time consuming. 99.9 of cars require the removal of the dash to get to it.

 

You're right, heater cores are generaly a pain in the rear.

One of the .1% would be the '80s model Thunderbird -- I changed one out from under the hood -- only 2 bolts 2 hoses and you pull it out of the box. Now why can't all car manufacturers go that route?

 

Damn, I hate to be in your shoes but, im glad you found out what it was.

 

hey haftcent thats not all the way down when i did the all options swap i hade mine farther then that it real eazy and only takes 1 1/2 hrs to take it all the way down.

 

my camaro's heater core was easy to do. I could have done it in 45mins. U remove the glove box and a plastic cover then loosen 3 screws on the core and it comes right out. I found that out after I drove 250 miles with a leaking heater core.