anybody had this happen?

[A-TownNavi]

My heatercore just went out on my navi. Its been goin on for quite some time now, appx a month. about 10min after you start it, it would start having this smoke/fog come through the vents. which i later found out to be burning antifreeze (that was great to breathe for a month lol). anyway i just dropped it off this morning to get fixed, they say it take about 10 hours to do it cuz they have to take apart the entire dash, and its going to cost appx $1400 :shock: , there goes my Blinders :( . I took it to 3 Lincoln dealerships to make sure that thats what it really was. Anyway i was just wondering if anyone else here has had a similar problem?

[fallen8511]

Umm, it takes them 10 hours to take apart the dash? I can get the dash off my car in less than an hour.

That seems absurdly high to replace a heatercore, but I don't know anything about Navigators.

If I were you, I'd call a local mechanic who works on Fords, and ask him about it. Or, call the Ford dealer. I'd bet money the job is exactly the same as on the Ford Expedition, or whatever car the Navigator is based off.

Dealerships are pretty shady, they have very high prices, and they are filled with inexperienced 20 year olds, who will someday be moving into an independent shops, and perhaps owning their own shop. They are like the training ground for people before they move into their own shop.

Call up an independent shop in your area.

[A-TownNavi]

oh i did. i wasnt going to spend $1400 on something that would cost $200 somewhere else. i went to 3 Ford/Lincoln Dealerships and a place right by my house that does air conditioning and whatnot and they all said the same thing. Apparently thay needed a new heatercore new pipeing and new brackets new adapters and another part that needed to be shipped overnight. and apparently in Navi's you have to take the entire dash apart (which is a pain in the @$$ cuz ive had to do it before to install all my car audio,neons, and switches) and i only took apart about 1/2 the dash, they have to take apart the entire thing. all in all its just one big PITA. what i dont get is that i checked my anti-freeze in my tank and it was BLACK. why the hell would it be black? and when i let my car sit for a while it would leak anti-freeze which would be brown/black-im pretty sure it was coming from the pipes to the heatercore. Oh well, Sh*! happens right.

[SmaartAasSaabr]

Ouch... and the car isn't very old either. Did you flush the coolant every couple years?

In any case, if you know how to pull the dash, then do it! The heatercore replacement is very simple once the dash is removed.

It is a real PITA, it would take you a whole day or maybe two... but you can do it.

[A-TownNavi]

yeah the coolants where flushed on a regular basis. i know i couldve have done it myself but 1. i didnt want it to turn out like when a women gets her oil changed and when a man does it himself :D and 2. cuz im going on trip on thursday and i wanted to know that it was going to be done and not in 150 pieces in my driveway lol.

[SmaartAasSaabr]

My car is in 150 pieces in my driveway, I had a hole in my muffler, so I took off the exhaust and had a new one waiting. Then the catalyst heat shield came apart, and I saw foam through the floor. I pulled out the entire interior, only to find that the hole let water in and everything was wet and rusty.

Basically from the firewall to right in front of the backseats, around the centre tunnel (where the console/shifter is) is gone on both sides, all that remains is a small amount in the middle holding the shifter up :shock:

Gotta get some pictures of that, it just keeps getting worse and worse as I dig in... I'm thinking adding some sheet steel on there, cover it with a fibreglass mat, spray undercoating on both sides and install my mint interior that has been taking up space for the past little while.

So I have to spend the next week and likely the one after driving a little POS. Grr :evil:

[A-TownNavi]

My car is in 150 pieces in my driveway, I had a hole in my muffler, so I took off the exhaust and had a new one waiting. Then the catalyst heat shield came apart, and I saw foam through the floor. I pulled out the entire interior, only to find that the hole let water in and everything was wet and rusty.

Basically from the firewall to right in front of the backseats, around the centre tunnel (where the console/shifter is) is gone on both sides, all that remains is a small amount in the middle holding the shifter up :shock:

Gotta get some pictures of that, it just keeps getting worse and worse as I dig in... I'm thinking adding some sheet steel on there, cover it with a fibreglass mat, spray undercoating on both sides and install my mint interior that has been taking up space for the past little while.

So I have to spend the next week and likely the one after driving a little POS. Grr :evil:

DAM! :shock: thats not good. im helping my buddy install his alarm on his 240sx and it is a big PITA. cuz its not just an alarm, its the alarm itself(Viper 791xv), keyless entry, trunk release, window controls, dual shock sensors, radar sensor (basically if he has his windows down and someone reaches in then the windows go up and alarm goes off.), and the biggest PITA of it all (which we fineshed two days ago) a Fuel pump cut-off switch, if the alarm is armed and someone starts it, it will shut off if the clutch, brake, or gas is pushed at all. its a great feature but after we finished it we went and got something to eat and didnt bring the manual for it with us, which was a huge mistake cuz the has a keypad for the code to be put it to disarm it, and we didnt know the code :roll: :lol: . his car is in about 500 pieces right now lol. your idea for fixing your hole sounds good though, that should do it.

[SmaartAasSaabr]

and the biggest PITA of it all (which we fineshed two days ago) a Fuel pump cut-off switch, if the alarm is armed and someone starts it, it will shut off if the clutch, brake, or gas is pushed at all. its a great feature but after we finished it we went and got something to eat and didnt bring the manual for it with us, which was a huge mistake cuz the has a keypad for the code to be put it to disarm it, and we didnt know the code :roll: :lol: . his car is in about 500 pieces right now lol. your idea for fixing your hole sounds good though, that should do it.

:lol: Ouch... you had to get home in 1st gear at 5 miles per hour or what? Ah I hate stuff like that...

Probably the biggest pain in the ass I ever had was once I was on a trip to Connecticut. And somewhere in NY, my wheel almost fell off. I had to change all the studs, except it was 8:30 AM and none of the stores opened, and there wasn't an autoparts store anywhere to be seen. Eventually got on the road though. Man was it a hot day too! :evil:

[A-TownNavi]

na we had to wait for 2 hours till his roomate got out of class so he could tell us. the stupid part though- the code was on the back of the keypad! :roll: . lol.

[laserblaster]

the vw golfs suffer this problem, something to do with the pressure of the system, but they also use to rot aswell....

but ours went sometime in 1998 - 1999 i think when the car was 11 - 12 years old! by this time most are well in the scrap yard!

the gti lasted from 1987 - 2004, main reason for scrapping, gearbox diff failure!

[stalker]

sounds to high to me m8...id really got to some mechanics and ask them to look and quote.....i know ford/lincoln parts are expensive but man not that much.....the inflation from a dealership is massive....I avaoid them at all costs as they will just have a 1st year apprentice do the work and you will be back hundreds of times as the job wasnt done properly.

Good luck m8

Stalker

[Won Hunglo]

Book hours are 10 but I can do it in 3. The steering columb must be dropped, dash unbolted, AC evacuated/recharged ect. It is a PITA & a well known Ford defect that will happen again in a few years.

[brick]

My dad had a similar experience with his old Volvo, but it was the AC evaporator which is equally difficult to get to. If you think that's bad, consider that he had the rear main seal replaced at the same time. $2500+ for three or four days of work. :(

[Ryanistheroad]

Hey:

I did this repair on my old dodge daytona. I was in the same boat the dealer wanted like $900.00 for the labor mostly. The core went bad after 7 years. I drove it for as long as possible but it will start leaking in the interior. It was soo embrassing taking girls out and the windows would fog so bad!!! I had to have the girl wipe the window down every 5 mins to see. :lol:

The heater core itself is cheap (part was like 30 bucks) and easy to install. Now getting the heater box out is a different story. It took me and my buddy 4-5 hours. The whole dash in pieces. Also, as previously stated you will have to recharge the r-134a. Watch the plastic pieces cause they always crack and never seem to fit right again. The aftermarket heater cores are much more beefer due to OEM's mistakes. The core was so much thicker the metal etc..

Ryan

[A-TownNavi]

yeah i got it fixed a while ago by the dealer just because i had a trip coming up and didnt have the time to order all the parts and fix it. but i know what you mean about the leaking in the interior. my happened all at once, i thought my water pump had broke cuz i had a huge puddle under my car, then i got in and it was all on the psgr side mat, and it smells like a$$ :lol: . but i still had to drive like with it like that for about 3 days and really couldnt exceed 40mph of else my engine temp gauge would sky rocket. oh well, sh*! happens, what can ya do :) .