Need advice on best price/quality 850 heater core

Post by **JimBee** » 15 Sep 2010, 18:20

Heater cores on ebay are around $110.00, ranging to $145.00 on FCP. Does anyone have experience with the lower price units?
Thanks for information

xjflexer · Post by **xjflexer** » 16 Sep 2010, 06:33

When I had to do the heatercore due to seepage and coolant smell with heat on on my '96 850R, I did some research on this site and it appears that the best is the Behr unit, which is the one from FCP. There have been a lot of complaints about the "lesser quality" units suffering catastrophic failures within 15-20 miles of replacement.

NoMechanic · Post by **NoMechanic** » 16 Sep 2010, 06:48

FCP also guarantees their parts. If you have a faulty part, they will replace. I have used them many times including having to return an O2 sensor. They were lightening fast .... highly recommend. Spend the extra $35.

Post by **Ozark Lee** » 16 Sep 2010, 16:40

The only thing I found with the FCP core (I think it was a Behr but I'm not 100% sure) was that it was slightly narrower than the OEM and as a result the heater needs to be cranked up a much higher than it was with the OEM to get the same amount of heat due to it not sealing off to the side of the climate unit as tightly as the OEM.

This was on a system with the MCC.

...Lee