Hi All.. just discovered this great forum and have a question / seek advice.

I own a 1994 Audi A90 and have spent a ton of money over the last year or 2 keeping it on the road (mostly on the cooling system).

Well, while driving last evening I started to smell the unmistakeable smell of steam laced with antifreeze inside the car.. shorly followed by steam from the passenger side footwell area.
Having stopped the car and checked the coolant level (no reading) I discovered a pool of coolant inside the car belowthe drivers footmat.

I understand from reading posts that the likely cause is a failed heater core and/ or rubber pipes.... my question I guess is how big a job is replacement... I've read stuff about removing steering wheels, entire dashboards etc ???

Next question is... Money is really tight at the moment and I have read its possible to bypass the heater core... can anyone point me to some info on this as I cant find it.... and not sure I have the correct pipes identified in the engine.... again any ideas??/posts.. web sites?

thx in advance to anyone who takes pity on me [&o]

 

There is only a heater core inside your car, no rubber pieces. Its not such big deal changing it, more like time consuming. It took me three days to do it, first two dissasembling, therd assembling.
to change it you have to take almost all of the intirier front of the car (see on my web page).

to by-pass the heater core take a metal tube, size (?????) ,and connect two rubber tubes togeter. (their is two tubes coming into the upper center of the car in the engine compartment).

Questions just ask.
PS welcome.

 

Thx for the reply... I saw the pics and it looks like a lot of work...
Are these the pipes you are refering to that can be bridged to bypass the heater core??

Also, can you recommend a good maintenance manual that will show the steps required to strip everything out to replace... I'm in Canada and manuals are not that easy to come by for foreign cars.

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Regards, Paul

 

yes this two.
and I didn't use any manual, I did it by my self.
its not that hard, there is about 15-25 screws to unscrew and half of that stuf will just pup out.
central consol, dash, wheel, airbag, torpido, heater and back again.