New firewall heater hose connector vs old, and my next step

[Ouch]

I've seen a couple of threads on heater hoses, and the firewall connector between the engine - firewall - heater core pipes.

After struggling to get the hoses on the engine (turbo in the way, big hands, etc. lol), and finally discovering how to get the gas pedal out of the way, I was finally able to get the coupling out of the firewall, and the heater core pipes removed to better see what I had to do next.

The image below is the new coupling from the dealer (# 3522035 aka "snap on coupling"). The dealer insists the O rings, etc came with this part. Good news to me.

However, below is the business end of the heater core pipes showing the remains of the Orings etc., and the yellow snap on rings.

The new coupler has the yellow snap on already inset as shown.

I'm just wanting to confirm two things:

1. I can remove the yellow rings and Orings from the old pipes and discard them without worry? (Yes, when I pop the new yellow rings out of the connector I see the new Orings etc already in the connector's tube.)

2. After removing these from the metal core pipes, I can simply push the now bare metal pipes into the new connector until I hear it snap, and take comfort that all is well?

And I don't have to do anything like pull the new yellow snap connectors out, extract the new O rings, slip them onto the pipe and then push them into the connector. Since that seems unlikely, I almost just went ahead to do that - but given how stupidly difficult this whole cycle has been, it seemed prudent to ask someone experienced and more knowledgeable.

The same is true on the engine side too; the yellow connectors etc are already available neatly seated in that side of the coupling too.

Any comments or advice are welcome!

thanks

IMAG0028.JPG (15.97 KiB) Viewed 2430 times

[Ozark Lee]

The only pearls of wisdom I can supply is that the OEM parts and the aftermarket parts don't play well together. The shoulder on the yellow quick release tabs are wider than the OEM and you need to make sure that you extract all of the OEM O rings and spacers out of the pipes and use only the O rings and spacers supplied with the aftermarket kit.

My yellow aftermarket connectors fit just fine into the OEM pipes after I yanked out the spacer and O ring that got left behind in the pipes when I removed the OEM stuff and used all of the replacement parts.

...Lee

[bigdaddylee82]

I went through all of this about a month ago, took a bunch of pictures, and have intentions to do a write up. At the begining of my write up I intend to say something like "Don't waste your time! just buy some heater hose and hose clamps."

I was able to get mine in without completely removing the gas peddle, just had to remove the throttle cable from the peddle.

I got a small package of the yellow plastic washers and O-rings and clips, the rest were/are in the fire wall coupler. If you look in the coupler you'll see them in there.

I removed the clips for the engine side and put them on the hoses, but just left the O-rings/washers in the coupler. I was concerned with galling/gouging a washer/O-ring if I tried digging them out with a screw driver or something.

A big tip I'll give is petroleum jelly/Vasoline on the O-rings to keep them in place and lube the tubes for easier insertion.

Push till it snaps yes, but you might not actually notice an audible "snap" so don't go crazy with it, it doesn't take a ton of effort to get the pipes in their proper spot.

One other thing I did, that helped A LOT, was to trim the side of my coupler down. I was pretty sure I was going to have to remove the entire dash/evaporator housing to get the new one in place otherwise.

Here's a picture of how I trimmed mine. I don't know if I did in significant structural damage, but I don't care. I will NEVER do this repair/replacement to my car again.

DSC04330.JPG (213.35 KiB) Viewed 2416 times

I think I answered everyting, feel free to ask if you have any other questions, most of it is still fresh enough in my memory to have still have a clue.

Again though, I'd just get some hose and clamps, maybe some grommets to protect it where it goes through the holes in the fire wall, and save myself the headache.


- Lee

[Ouch]

[quote="Ozark Lee"]The only pearls of wisdom I can supply is that the OEM parts and the aftermarket parts don't play well together. The shoulder on the yellow quick release tabs are wider than the OEM and you need to make sure that you extract all of the OEM O rings and spacers out of the pipes and use only the O rings and spacers supplied with the aftermarket kit.

My yellow aftermarket connectors fit just fine into the OEM pipes after I yanked out the spacer and O ring that got left behind in the pipes when I removed the OEM stuff and used all of the replacement parts.

...Lee[/quote]


I may have seen your threads about this which is why I went to the dealer for the parts. I've had enough frustration to have aftermarket mismatches, so your advice was well taken.

Theoretically, heater hoses, junction with its included Orings and spacers.... all OEM. (But is anything really OEM? lol)

[Ouch]

I went through all of this about a month ago, took a bunch of pictures, and have intentions to do a write up. At the begining of my write up I intend to say something like "Don't waste your time! just buy some heater hose and hose clamps."

I was able to get mine in without completely removing the gas peddle,

I think I answered everyting, feel free to ask if you have any other questions, most of it is still fresh enough in my memory to have still have a clue.

Again though, I'd just get some hose and clamps, maybe some grommets to protect it where it goes through the holes in the fire wall, and save myself the headache.

- Lee

Thank Lee. Very helpful.

Ultimately, I lucked out and found the pedal's pivot "shaft" and it slid out easily - after I relaxed and removed the throttle cable as mentioned. This made a huge difference; without this, I still couldn't get the junction past the pedal. There are threads elsewhere that an author describes getting the junction block out without removing the pedal. At this point, I find it hard to believe... I had dropped the core down and forward, to keep the stress off the pipe junction at the bottom of the core - now am glad I did that as well - but that did nothing to help get the firewall connector out. Only moving the pedal fixed that.

Later, maybe tonight or tomorrow, I'll take the new yellow clips out of the new connector and slide them onto their pipes/hoses, lube the Orings still seated inside the junction block, and slide everybody home... Since I released the pedal out of the way, I'm not going to Dremel the connector, but I admire your urge to get this over with and grind away the problem.

Now, if I had really believed the mechanic at the dealer when he told me how pissed I was going to be while doing this, and afterwards, I would have gone straight to your suggestion and just buy some heater hose and clamps and forget the rest.

Getting the hoses onto the engine was likewise a drag. Clearances were way to small to manipulate the hoses, too much in the way, and still don't have one correctly seated and clamped.

Dealer quoted me 5+ hours of labor for this. I choked. That couldn't be right! Towed the car home. Yeah I saved money, but lost way more than 5 hours spread across days. Don't tell him I had second thoughts about going ahead and paying him almost a grand to it...

Thanks for your help. I am looking forward to seeing your writeup and seeing all the details I could have used.

Tom

[bigdaddylee82]

While trimming the lip off of the side of the coupler made it slightly easier to thread back behind the gas peddle, that wasn't my primary reason. I tried everything I could think of, turned every possible direction, and there was NO way that I could get the couplers lip back behind the evaporator housing and inserted into it's hole without breaking something and/or removing the dash. Removal wasn't as big of an issue because I didn't care if the old one broke, I just "man-handled" it out.

Here's a picture of the "modified" coupler installed, and you can see how the lip I removed has to go behind the big white plastic cover (I think that's the evaporator housing anyway).

heater hose coupler mod.jpg (35.87 KiB) Viewed 2396 times

Even trimmed down it was quite a chore to put back in.


- Lee

[Pauloil]

i just finished this job and figured a few things out that I believe are helpful to know.
I bypassed the heater core first in order to blow the coolant out of it using compressed air.
If you like to know sizes of tools: the torx on the bottom on the inside is T15, the upper screw is T20, as is the set screw holding the aluminum pipes into the heater core.
the gas pedal pops up easily and I just moved it a bit, took off its mount and was able to get the coupler in no problem.
if you drain some coolant out first, will be less messy. One could open the 14mm drain on the back of the motor, put a pipe on to the catch the coolant, and further reduce the mess.
the coupler I got from ipdusa had an extra thicker plastic ring holding the engine side o-rings in it. This is NOT used upon reinstalling the new lines to the coupler.
I put the pipes inside into the coupler first, and put the set screw in last (back at the heater core).
using a small 9/32 socket on the screw clamps works a lot better than a screwdriver.

[Pauloil]

here a picture of the ring that hold the o-rings in