| Author |
Message |
    
Roger Fastring
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 04, 2002 - 07:13 am: | 
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My heater core died last year and having purchased a new one from Discount Rovers (they are great), I had the dash torn apart..bottom line, I couldnt get the connectors to snap together right and thought the whole system was cheezy and high probability of leaking. So, I circumvented the lines and have had no heat.
I got a new car and the D1 is my wifes daily driver and guess what, its cold and she wants some heat. Any heavy duty 12v heat suggestions or anyone mount a gas heater from an old series in a Disco? What about a 12v heater core in the spot of the leaker one? Thoughts? |
Paul T. Schram (Paulschram)
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 04, 2002 - 08:29 am: |
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Northern Tools (used to be Northern Hydraulics) has a heater device that plumbs into the coolant lines. This might work for you, however, I don't think you'll be pleased with the appearance as I seriously doubt it could be mounted in such a fashion that it wouldn't look cobbled together.
Could you go back to the OEM heater core and perhaps solder some more robust fittings to the inlet and outlet to give yourself a higher confidence level? Perhaps compression fittings to a hose barb. I can envision many ways to accomplish what you are trying to do.
I have found it to be very difficult to drive a vehicle without a heater core in the midwest (Indiana) as the heater does many things other than provide comfort heating for passengers.
Good luck,
Paul |
muskyman
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 04, 2002 - 08:29 am: |
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roger,
if your wife is anything like mine I'd say bite the bullett and tear it apart again. anything else will be hokey and just mess up your night every cold day. add to that the safty factor of having a good defroster that works and for me the obvious solution is fixing it stock.
thom |
Gary Taylor
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 04, 2002 - 09:50 am: |
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I couldn't get my heater core to stop leaking at the points where the metal tubes come into the heater core. Those stupid little clamps are a sadistic, assinine engineering feat. So, I yanked it out and cut the metal tubes about two inches from the core, soldered them in to the heater core and put in a section of heater hose to re-join the tubes. No problems at all now.
Stupid clamps. |
johnb
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 04, 2002 - 08:01 pm: |
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even though i work in an auto shop,there are some jobs i just don't want to do myself.the heater core is one of those jobs.i must be getting old.oh well thats life. |
M. K. Watson (Lrover94)
| | Posted on Wednesday, December 04, 2002 - 08:27 pm: |
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if your wife is like mine she would have already handed my ass to me.
mike w |
Alex Cabrera
| | Posted on Thursday, December 05, 2002 - 08:09 am: |
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I'll chime in. On my end its the other way around. My VW is the one that is broke. I headed to the local pull-a-parts and after seeing how hard it was even when breaking stuff on the junker I gave up and found a neat 12V heater in my local AutoZone. I've been driving the Disco for a while so I haven't had a chance to see how well the mini-heater works.
I don't see how the 12 V won't work to defrost and provide other comforts that a heater-core will. Just turn it on and the little fan circulates the heat. I can't imagine not heating an enclosed space take too long. Start car, turn 12V heater on, go back inside, let car warm.
Alex Cabrera
www.geocities.com/cabrera_alex |
muskyman
| | Posted on Thursday, December 05, 2002 - 08:36 am: |
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alex,
where do you live?
i'd guess a 12v heater would work great...for the southern cali boys |
Paul T. Schram (Paulschram)
| | Posted on Thursday, December 05, 2002 - 08:38 am: |
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After putting three heater cores in my Blazer, I have to agree with John. I have yet to determine if my heater core was damaged last week in the freeze-up, good thing I have a spare!
Paul |
muskyman
| | Posted on Thursday, December 05, 2002 - 08:47 am: |
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yea they can be a bitch...try doing a heater blower moter on a MB 300e. you have to rip the dash and cowl apart to do it...the dealers take about 10-12 hours!
I did mine and god knows I didnt want to try to keep track.
paul, my scout...you can change a heater core in ten minuts tops...2 hose clamps and one philips screw...why cant they all be like that? |
Kevin Howell
| | Posted on Thursday, December 05, 2002 - 10:02 am: |
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this has to be the mother of all jobs. i just replaced mine myself a couple of weeks ago, and guess what? the new one is leaking!! all my fittings and connections are good. i tore the underdash and center console out . . . again . . . and the foam around the "new" core is saturated in antifreeze. i'm tired of sniffing antifreeze, cleaning carpet, pulling saturated,disintegrating foam sponge off the floorboard, and driving with a towel in one hand to wipe the slime off the windshield every 5 minutes. i really don't want to do this bitch of a job again, but here we go. how could this happen? do some of these places sell rebuilt or used parts without advertising as such? i got it at british/atlantic or atlantic/british or whatever they're called. we're about to find out about their customer service. |
Kevin Howell
| | Posted on Thursday, December 05, 2002 - 01:42 pm: |
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as an addendum to my last post, their customer service is quite good actually. i sent an email to atlantic-british about the problem detailed in my last message. and within an hour or so, they had already called me on my cellphone to tell me they were sending a new heater core to me, pronto. i don't even have the defective one out of my car yet. so, so far, i'm putting in a very positive plug for atlantic-british. i had already ordered a couple of items from them that i received promptly, so this is a good company to do business with. |
Alex Cabrera
| | Posted on Thursday, December 05, 2002 - 02:05 pm: |
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Musky,
Your right!! I'm in Georgia so comparing northern freezing winters to maybe a few flakes of snow here is not good. Maybe getting a power inverter and taking a small space heater. Just have to be sure of wattage.
I would say bundle up really good !!! Damn. I lived in N.J. as a kid and it sucked plowing snow off grandmas driveway. LOL
Kevin,
Thanks for the info.. Keeping fingers crossed that mine doesn't decide to go south on me.
Keep us posted. |
Kevin Howell
| | Posted on Thursday, December 05, 2002 - 02:30 pm: |
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you're welcome, alex. and this will be my last episode with the heater core win, lose, or draw. i'll put a fireplace in the friggin' cab before i do this again! |
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