Hi, I've just gotten my hands on an old audi 19988 80, I love the car but one of the things that is wrong with it is that the heater dosen't work. I've seen that someone in the past disconnected the heater core hoses so I suspect that the heater core was leaking, so I've pulled out the dash to get to it, I anticipted that once I got to the heater then it would be relatively easy to pull the core from it, but instead I'm stumped. Has anyone replaced an 88 80 core? how do you get into the heater? If anyone could help it'd be much appreciated.

I have replaced a core on a 4000 and 100 and its a b-i-t-c-h!!! My guess is that Audi didn't want the 80/90 owners to feel left out! If I were you I would get the Audi factory service manual without it you are going to be hopelessly lost, with it you will be hopelessly confused as it sucks but still better than nothing. While at it, it is a good idea to replace the, hoses, water pump, radiator, thermoswitch, expansion tank and blower motor as these items tend to fail within a few months of each other.

Thanks for the fast reply, I went and got a quote to get the heater core replaced by a european car heater specialist, the price I was given was too high to justify the fix at the moment and I found out that trying to fix it my self would mean that I'd have to mess about with the airconditioning system as well and I don't know if I'm quite up to that yet. This baby has to crawl before it can walk. But thanks alot for your replies - very insightful!

I doubt that you have to evacuate the refrigerant out of the AC but you will have to mess around with all the flaps and servos. The parts themselves are cheap but it is very labor intensive especially on the overstuffed cramped 80/90 models. On my old 4K it was a pain but much easier than on my '91 100Q.