Replacing Heater core and Evaporator Core

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thaimex

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Hello Guys,

I just finished replacing the following parts on my brothers 2012 Ram 2500 SLT 5.7 Hemi:

Evaporator Core
Heater Core
Expansion Valve
Both Inlet and Outlet heater Hose
Thermostat
thermostat housing

To replace the heater core and the Evaporator core, the entire Dashboard has to be moved away from the wall of the truck. Most 4th Gen trucks from 2010-2018, 1500,2500,3500,4500 all use the same type of dashboard configuration. The AC Box(********* box) behind the dashboard also has to be removed. the heater core in my brothers truck was leaking inside the truck and was wetting the floor area of the passenger side. If you have to replace either the heater core or the evaporator core, you might as well replace both of these parts since they sit side by side of each other. That is the best solution u can do because if you only do one of them, chances are u might have to replace the other one later. No need to do double work since u are already getting into the black box. I replace the expansion valve which sits at the end of the evaporator core.

I did the same type of work for my 2010 Ram 1500 last year so doing the work for the 2500 was a piece of cake.
So now my brother 2012 Ram 2500 has AC and heater without any problems.
 

NOV87

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Sounds like a big undertaking.
 

Dodge 1500 4X4

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Do you work at a dealership, this is a major job, did you reclaim the Freon and evacuate the system, you have to be a rubber man from India to get in those spaces, I would love some pics of this undertaking.
 
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thaimex

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no sir, i dont work at a dealership, but i have been working on cars since my high school days and im 48 yrs old. i took the truck to a mechanic shop so they can use a recovery machine to drain the refrigerant out of the ac system. Most of your electrical connections are on the passenger side foot area, and u have one electrical connection up in the handle on the pillar by the windshield, and u have another connection on the driver side, side panel of the dash, by the door.. Drop down ur steering column, disconnect 3 electrical connections under ur steering column, and u have 3 main bolts on each side of the dashboard. U have 2 small bolts up in the dash right under the windshield(by the defrost vent on top of ur dash). And u have 2 bolts at the bottom of the very of the front of the dash(center console area). If u have a center console, u have to remove the console in order to get to these 2 bolts. Once you have loosen the dash, u can lift it up slightly and pull it away from the wall and u should be able to see the ********* ac box. that box is being held but 3 nuts and 1 bolt and by the heater hoses and the ac lines(where the expansion valve is located at). Thats when the ac box comes out
 

RAMTRPR

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I did this on my 09’. Great time to clean everything and run any new wires if your doing audio or lights :)

I put a box out of a wrecked 2012 in mine. Came all as one piece and the donor truck only had 15k on her. Kept all my blend door motors as well and the blower too :) just in case.

Took my about 4 hours start to finish.

Thanks for the pics too :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 

Dodge 1500 4X4

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thaimex, Thanks for sharing, Yae it helped with your previous knowledge that helped you allot!!!
 

Ram71Cuda

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I did this on my 09’. Great time to clean everything and run any new wires if your doing audio or lights :)

I put a box out of a wrecked 2012 in mine. Came all as one piece and the donor truck only had 15k on her. Kept all my blend door motors as well and the blower too :) just in case.

Took my about 4 hours start to finish.

Thanks for the pics too :)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
New to the site... Did I read that right? You put a box from a 2012 in your 2009. I have a 2005 that the recirc. door feel out of. But my reason for finding this sight is my 2013 quit blowing cold air. NAPA says the evap. core is leaking. I dropped the blower motor and looked with a mirror and the core looks a little dirty. They at napa said they seen dye was previously used somewhere by someone, I didn't see any on a valve or the evap. core. Not sure how they can access it as a bad evap. core without charging it and looking for a leak. 52 and twisted more than a few wrenches. Wife is fighting cancer or i would just tackle this myself. Just do not have the time. Any input would be appreciated. This 2013 has 92000 miles on it. Is this common for the evap. to go at this age. I mean its a clean truck and these are highway miles. thanx
 
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thaimex

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they best way to find out if ur evap core is leaking is the smell inside ur truck and if u put refrigerant and within a day or two, its needs it again, then its ur evap core. Also u would have an odor inside ur truck. An odor like, kind of rubber or mildew odor inside ur truck. The 2012-2018 are the same except minor details. if ur heater core leaks, u would smell antifreeze inside ur truck. almost the same for the evap core, u would have an refrigerant odor inside ur truck. Throw some dye into the refrigerant and theres a drain plug on ur wall right behiind the engine where the water leaks out, if you see the dye come out of there, that means ur evap core is leaking. If you look at the very first of my pics, u see the heater core and the evap core. one side of the evap core is almost clean but the other side is really dirty. The bad thing to replace this is that u would have to do the same thing ive done to 2 trucks. Remove the dash and the black AC box to replace the evap core. If you are doing this, you might as well replace both the Evap core and heater core since they sit side by side each other. Replace the expansion valve also since u have to remove it to remove the evap core. Hope this helps you
 

NicksGarage

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I'm just starting this project on my 2009. The OEM procedures say to remove the seats and pull the carpet up to get to the floor ducts that go to the back. Did you have to do that? I don't have a console but the center seat has A/C vents in the back of it and there are floor ducts under each front seat.

Also was it easier to remove the heater hoses from inside or from under the hood. I can't see how I'm going to get to the clamps from under the hood.
 
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GTyankee

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NicksGarage

Our Rams did not come with Cabin Air Filters

The factory began installing them at the factory in January 2017
My 2016 Ram was built in December 2015, so the CAF had to installed, which includes cutting into the Climate Control Box, directly behind the glove compartments.
Even the new Rams only have the rectangular hole cut out & the CAF Door installed, i don't believe that they install the filter, but i may be incorrect.

I just had Carl Burger cut the hole in the box, Install the door to cover it & after that i went to buy a WIX Charcoal Cabin Air Filter & Carl Burger installed it also.
I am 78 & i can't twist my body around under the dash any more

There are several YouTube Videos showing how to do the CAF, Cabin Air Filter
There are a few about how to pull the whole Climate Control Box out of the cab & who to buy the broken CC Doors from.
If you are going to pull the CC Box out of the Ram.
FIX EVERY DOOR, broken or not & use a much better Brand than Mopar
Also, if the Ram is over 10 years old, check out the Condensor & Heater boxes that are inside of the CC Box

Read up on these doors & fitments blenddoorusa
 

Grand Mesa

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NicksGarage

Our Rams did not come with Cabin Air Filters

The factory began installing them at the factory in January 2017
My 2016 Ram was built in December 2015, so the CAF had to installed, which includes cutting into the Climate Control Box, directly behind the glove compartments.
Even the new Rams only have the rectangular hole cut out & the CAF Door installed, i don't believe that they install the filter, but i may be incorrect.

I just had Carl Burger cut the hole in the box, Install the door to cover it & after that i went to buy a WIX Charcoal Cabin Air Filter & Carl Burger installed it also.
I am 78 & i can't twist my body around under the dash any more

There are several YouTube Videos showing how to do the CAF, Cabin Air Filter
There are a few about how to pull the whole Climate Control Box out of the cab & who to buy the broken CC Doors from.
If you are going to pull the CC Box out of the Ram.
FIX EVERY DOOR, broken or not & use a much better Brand than Mopar
Also, if the Ram is over 10 years old, check out the Condensor & Heater boxes that are inside of the CC Box

Read up on these doors & fitments blenddoorusa
GTyankee,

Thank you so much.

I installed a Napa CAF in my 2016 Ram 2500 Tradesman Power Wagon today. My Power Wagon was built in late 2016 and it didn't come with a CAF. I didn't know until yesterday after 85,000 miles of driving it that it was already setup for a CAF, until I just read about it. Sure enough upon checking it did have the CAF door installed, but without a filter. I've replaced/maintained CAF's in several of my family's vehicles for over a decade. Probably have replaced over 20 of them. Always wished that I had one in my truck too, but it is a Tradesman and so I just figured it wasn't an option on the cheaper trim.

I've been eating a mouthful of dust while driving both behind and while passing by other trucks on our dirt roads. Had to do something about that. My area of Northwestern Colorado is under exceptional drought conditions which is the highest tier level, beyond extreme drought. Dust and dirt covers everything out on the road. The CAF is a nice feature to finally install in the HVAC.
 

16Ram4x4

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Glad you got it done by yourself to save a lot of money on shop labor and on the parts. My buddy just recently spent $1200.00 on his 2014 Silverado to have a very badly designed high failure rate part replaced.
Some years back a friend of mine had a third gen that had a blown evaporator core. That was a pain in the ***, you had to take the whole dash apart, pull the bench seat and drop the steering column. We replaced both the evaporator core and heater core at the same time. Took roughly little over four hours to do the whole job.
I just don't understand why they don't engineer these hvac boxes to make it easier to replace the heater core or evaporator core
 

2012RAM1500RT

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Ford use to, may still do, have a commercial "fords better idea". I remember years ago my mother in law coming to my house with her '79 lincoln town car in the dead of winter asking me if I would change her heater core because she had no heat. I ask her if she had any idea what that consist of which she didn't. I had no garage at the time and had to do it in my driveway in the winter time. Well I couldn't let her go without heat so I reluctantly went out to start taking the dash out, I opened the hood to disconnect the battery and I noticed right above the heater hoses on the firewall was a rectangular plate with 4 screws so I took the plate off and to my surprise there was the heater core. I took the hoses off, lifted the old heater core out, put the new one in all within about 10 minutes. Talk about happy. When I went back in she of course couldn't understand what the big deal was I was making it out to be. I said, "after all these years I finally found out what fords better idea was!" Haven't seen it since but I seen it once. Can't believe still after all these years manufacturers haven't been smart enough to put a plate on the firewall to access the heater core and evap. If ford can do it anyone can do it, even they don't do it anymore!
 

Rado

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Today changing heaters cores and Evap suck compared to the old days lol
My lady friend just had it done on her foster sons Jeep.
Nice seeing you had help and past experance or that could be a 1k$ job :O
 

theBigNasty1984

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what is the time commitment on this kind of repair? I'm a pretty slow mechanic, but i try to as much as i can to avoid the stealerships so I'm not afraid of much. So long as i have the time...
 

BadHemi2014

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I had to change my heater core early this year. It actually took 3 days, a couple or 3 hours each day, working solo. So I'm slow too. But I had another car to drive so was in no rush. It could be done in a weekend, or even one long day especially if you have a buddy to help. Honestly it wasn't that bad of a job, the only part I needed a hand with was getting the steering column back in place, it was just a bit awkward being upside down under the dash lol.
Here's a link to part 1 of a 4 part really helpful video.
https://youtu.be/dWCjuXxBhlY
It was worth it, figure I saved a grand and now I have HEAT!
 

Ramagain

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what is the time commitment on this kind of repair? I'm a pretty slow mechanic, but i try to as much as i can to avoid the stealerships so I'm not afraid of much. So long as i have the time...
It's pretty easy. I had mine ready to pull out in under an hour on a 13 3500 with a Cummins engine. If I'm not mistaken access is better with the 5.7 to the firewall bolts. On mine it was easier to pull the lines into the cab to access the hose clamps. If your slow it's a weekend job and still easy. It just looks daunting. If you have a buddy or capable spouse it'll make a few things easier but for the most part this is a job 1 person can do.
 

PontonJohn

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I have an 84 D350 with bilevel AC. From the engine side the heater connections are at the far left and the AC connections are at the RH bottom of the unit. I cannot find a diagram of the unit to troubleshoot the defroster & heat which are both lacking.
 

Ratboy

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Hey there NicksGarage. I'm about to undertake this project on my 2009. What did you find out on your questions? Also what evaporator & heater core did you use? I'm finding a great many options and a huge price spread. Any other little parts (seals, gaskets, etc) needed replacing while in there as well?
 
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