And..... it went better than expected!

I had watched a few videos and read some walkthroughs and was dreading it because I thought I had to remove the ENTIRE DASH, but I didn't. Not even part of it.

The project took me a weekend of working on it when I felt like it. I didn't rush, and I wanted for parts quite a bit, so probably 8-12 hours of solid work (less if you have friends willing to do nasty work with you.)

Here's a text walkthrough, it's really not that hard. (Sry, I was too angry that the heater core broke to take pictures.)

• Remove plastic above rain tray
• Remove metal thing at bottom of windshield and above wipers (4 hex bolts)
• Remove plastic thing under thing you just took off (just pulls off)
• Remove the wiring harness coming over from the passenger's side of the car (just unhook it until you can drape it over the side)
• Remove wiper assembly/wipers
• Remove the black and white vacuum lines that are connecting outside of the heater box (some lines go between parts of the box itself, those can stay)
• Go inside the car, remove rear center console (screws under shifter area and behind seats)
• Remove Front center console (note: the part holding the radio and AC controls is a separate part, you DO NOT need to remove this)
• Here are the screws you need to remove (IIRC) the ones holding the AC controls in, the ones behind the vents up top (those pull out) and the ones behind the small tiny blanks beside the fog light switch and whatever is on the other side)
• There is also a screw in the vacinity of the gas pedal behind a tiny flap.
• I put my auto shifter in "1" then I just pulled the console out (the part holding the radio and stuff separates from it)
• Now remove the pieces of plastic above the driver's and passenger's feet. (2 on drivers side and 1 on passenger's I think)
• Remove glove box
• Remove the plastic vent "elbows" toward the center of the car on both sides (you can't miss them)
• Remove the rubber boot thing in the center of the car that leads to.... the foot well heat things i think.
• Remove the footwell heat things (plastic vent things above your feet, held in by 1 screw and 1 clip) both sides.
• Remove the black vent that directs air to the rear seats (under the center console (you can't miss it)) held in by 1 plastic nut.
• Unhook 1 red wire connector, and 1 blue wire connector toward the middle of the car (one on driver's side, one on passenger's side, you can't miss them.
• Go back to the engine bay.
• Remove the metal strap holding the heater box in (1 screw).
• Remove the heater core hoses (coolant might come out, depending on HOW broken your heater core is)
• Remove the giant hose clamp holding the rubber connector between the... uh... box thingy (I'm assuming it's the interior air filter) on the passenger's side and the fan motor. I also removed the motor on top of that giant part because it controls a yellow "air stopper" inside that was perpendicular to the pipe itself, therefore making it harder for me to pull the heater box out. With the motor removed you can turn it freely.
• At this point, I just yanked on the heater core box until it decided to come out. It was easier to bring the front of it up first instead of trying to just pull it out straight.
• The sealant holds pretty tight, so I had to scrape at it with a pick until it decided it wanted to let go.
• You can figure out how to take the heater box apart.
• Well, you have to remove the motors that turn the things on the sides, then remove a ton of hidden screws and clips, it's a time consuming pain (wait till you try to put it back together). It wasn't that hard though, I just pried it apart and saw which parts were still connected, then looked for a screw. You need to remove the clips holding the white "bars" in on ONE side.
• Then do everything in reverse.

I know that's probably confusing if you just read it, but if you follow along, it's actually pretty easy.

I followed the last post in this thread.
https://www.audiforums.com/forum/aud...r-core-141144/


And I looked at this video for inspiration. In the video you can see the plastic "elbows", the rubber thing in the center of the car, the yellow "air stopper" and some other things.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_dfBi7Hmb4

I hope this helps someone, and as the guy in the video said... Good luck.