Heater Core replacement w/o disconnecting A/C

I just noticed that I have coolant leaking out of my heater box. I did a little research and narrowed it down to the Heater Core. A little research later, I found that I need to also disconnect the A/C system to get at the heater core. My XJ is a 93 and has the old R12 refrigerant. It works great and I don't really want to mess with it. So that is why I ask the question, can you replace the Heater core without disconnecting the A/C? If not, what are my options for getting the A/C working again?

I've not had one apart like yours, but it might be posible to slip the heater core out from the box but you won't know till you have the box open.I don't know if the core is in the front of the evaporator or behind it, on the 97+ there is about 1" of movement possible with the evap before you start putting stress on the connectors on the firewall. I personally would take it to your local mechanic who has an a/c machine and have him evacute it, do your repairs and then have them draw a vac and put the R12 back in. Be sure to put a dry condom or something over the fittings once you take them apart, pick as dry a day as possible with low humidity to minimize any moisture that will get pulled in.

There really is no way because there isn't enough room under an older XJ dash anyway to rotate the heater box far enough away and still get the core out.

Thanks for the advice. A warm dry day won't be that hard to find in Utah. Now for another question. Checker auto has two different heater cores listed on their web site. One is a ready aire that looks like copper and is 45 bucks. The other is a four seasons for 83. It has a silver color to it. Is their going to be a big difference between these two? I can't really understand why the one is almost twice as much as the other.

ajporter03 said:

Thanks for the advice. A warm dry day won't be that hard to find in Utah. Now for another question. Checker auto has two different heater cores listed on their web site. One is a ready aire that looks like copper and is 45 bucks. The other is a four seasons for 83. It has a silver color to it. Is their going to be a big difference between these two? I can't really understand why the one is almost twice as much as the other.

Click to expand...

I dunno on that for sure. I got one from O'Reilly's (not sure if you have them where you are, it's like a Checker though) for like $40 and it's held up fine for about 5 months so far. It was like the copper color too obviously with silver solder around the joints. You're saying the tubes are actually silver though? That's weird.

Just aluminum vs copper is all. Make sure you take your old one in and match it up, heard a few where they did not match size right and that could be annoying.

RenixPower said:

There really is no way because there isn't enough room under an older XJ dash anyway to rotate the heater box far enough away and still get the core out.

Click to expand...

Yes there is, if you unbolt the dash from the firewall it comes out, its not easy but it is doable. I replaced my heater core without removing the entire dash and without disconnecting the a/c lines, just take a bit of inginuity (sp?) to figure out which way to rotate it. I unbolted the dash from the radio over, but nothing on the driver side had to be loosened.

Blue XJ said:

Yes there is, if you unbolt the dash from the firewall it comes out, its not easy but it is doable. I replaced my heater core without removing the entire dash and without disconnecting the a/c lines, just take a bit of inginuity (sp?) to figure out which way to rotate it. I unbolted the dash from the radio over, but nothing on the driver side had to be loosened.

Click to expand...

Great news to me too!!!!!

But what year was your XJ???

Blue XJ said:

Yes there is, if you unbolt the dash from the firewall it comes out, its not easy but it is doable. I replaced my heater core without removing the entire dash and without disconnecting the a/c lines, just take a bit of inginuity (sp?) to figure out which way to rotate it. I unbolted the dash from the radio over, but nothing on the driver side had to be loosened.

Click to expand...

Oh don't get me wrong, I only unbolted that half of the dash too, it didn't make any sense to go further, I just didn't think there was enough room to rotate the heater box out of the way with the evaporator still in it to get the core out.

Ecomike said:

Great news to me too!!!!!

But what year was your XJ???

Click to expand...

90