Removing Heater Box
Discussion
Someone requested a write up, so here it is:
You need to start by removing the wiper motor assembly as it gets in the way of accessing the passenger side bolts on the heater. The bolts on the heater and the wiper motor assembly are all horrible to undo as they require the nuts inside the car to be held in place while the allen key style bolt is turned from the outside.
Luckily for me some clever chap had used enough sealant on the wiper motor assembly nuts inside to allow the bolts to be removed without assistance from the outside and also to allow them to be re-inserted and screwed back in without assistance. As it turns out, the wiper motor nuts inside would have probably been the worst ones to get to as they are almost as high up as the top of the dashboard. So that saved me a lot of time, cuts and swearing
. To finish this bit you need to remove the nut holding the wiper arm, as well as 3 standard phillips style Noble screws attaching it to the chassis. To get to these I had to remove three (standard Noble) screws either side of the fan shroud between the fans and the heater box to give me enough space to get to these chassis screws (this also allows a bit of room to pull the heater out).
Once the wiper motor assembly is removed (you also have to disconnect the windscreen washer pipe passenger side as it pops through the wiper assembly)
you can start removing the heater. There are two bolts either side of the box, and as mentioned the nuts holding the bolts are inside the car - two are quite easy to get to in the drivers side footwell. I found there was the chance to attach a spanner around these ones and was able to undo them on my own from the outside (the spanner is held inplace by sidewalls near the nuts), but it would have been simpler and quicker to get wifey to unscrew while I held the spanner around them.
This is what was required for the bolts on the passenger side. The nuts are harder to get to here, the lower one being the easier of the two. For this I
dragged out my less than willing volunteer to undo the bolts while I held the nuts in place with the spanner. The top one is a bit of a pig if you have bigger hands to attach the spanner and secure it, but once in place we managed it in about a minute.
Once the bolts are off, put on a smug face and tell yourself how great you are. Then remove the box by simply cutting the sealant around the box and pulling the
air ducts off the bottom (should be 4 of them and they come off with a reasonable twist) . I found that I had to undo the arm that crosses the front of the car and runs over the heater to both wiper blade pivots, as the heater was getting stuck with this still in place.
Voila, heater out, and lots of piping underneath to inspect. There should be a central point near the bottom that you can now see where a load of piping
converges into the tunnel. Mine was covered by a thin metal plate - this is the tunnel entrance into which you insert the air duct piping for the tunnel mod.
I should have really cut holes but I opted for removing the top two screws from the plate and bending it on the passenger side corner so that just enough room was had to poke through two of the air ducting pipes (although just one will suffice apparently). This also had the benefit of the bend in the plate pushing back onto the piping and holding it securely, although they're quite tight in there anyway. If you do opt for this rather than cutting the plate, make sure none of the hoses around that area are touching or could in the future move and touch the sharp(ish) sides of the bent section of the plate to avoid damage to these hoses. In my case there are no hoses anywhere near it should it should be fine.
Also worth checking the hoses and chasis exposed by the missing heater box to double check they're all in good nick.
You need to start by removing the wiper motor assembly as it gets in the way of accessing the passenger side bolts on the heater. The bolts on the heater and the wiper motor assembly are all horrible to undo as they require the nuts inside the car to be held in place while the allen key style bolt is turned from the outside.
Luckily for me some clever chap had used enough sealant on the wiper motor assembly nuts inside to allow the bolts to be removed without assistance from the outside and also to allow them to be re-inserted and screwed back in without assistance. As it turns out, the wiper motor nuts inside would have probably been the worst ones to get to as they are almost as high up as the top of the dashboard. So that saved me a lot of time, cuts and swearing
. To finish this bit you need to remove the nut holding the wiper arm, as well as 3 standard phillips style Noble screws attaching it to the chassis. To get to these I had to remove three (standard Noble) screws either side of the fan shroud between the fans and the heater box to give me enough space to get to these chassis screws (this also allows a bit of room to pull the heater out).Once the wiper motor assembly is removed (you also have to disconnect the windscreen washer pipe passenger side as it pops through the wiper assembly)
you can start removing the heater. There are two bolts either side of the box, and as mentioned the nuts holding the bolts are inside the car - two are quite easy to get to in the drivers side footwell. I found there was the chance to attach a spanner around these ones and was able to undo them on my own from the outside (the spanner is held inplace by sidewalls near the nuts), but it would have been simpler and quicker to get wifey to unscrew while I held the spanner around them.
This is what was required for the bolts on the passenger side. The nuts are harder to get to here, the lower one being the easier of the two. For this I
dragged out my less than willing volunteer to undo the bolts while I held the nuts in place with the spanner. The top one is a bit of a pig if you have bigger hands to attach the spanner and secure it, but once in place we managed it in about a minute.
Once the bolts are off, put on a smug face and tell yourself how great you are. Then remove the box by simply cutting the sealant around the box and pulling the
air ducts off the bottom (should be 4 of them and they come off with a reasonable twist) . I found that I had to undo the arm that crosses the front of the car and runs over the heater to both wiper blade pivots, as the heater was getting stuck with this still in place.
Voila, heater out, and lots of piping underneath to inspect. There should be a central point near the bottom that you can now see where a load of piping
converges into the tunnel. Mine was covered by a thin metal plate - this is the tunnel entrance into which you insert the air duct piping for the tunnel mod.
I should have really cut holes but I opted for removing the top two screws from the plate and bending it on the passenger side corner so that just enough room was had to poke through two of the air ducting pipes (although just one will suffice apparently). This also had the benefit of the bend in the plate pushing back onto the piping and holding it securely, although they're quite tight in there anyway. If you do opt for this rather than cutting the plate, make sure none of the hoses around that area are touching or could in the future move and touch the sharp(ish) sides of the bent section of the plate to avoid damage to these hoses. In my case there are no hoses anywhere near it should it should be fine.
Also worth checking the hoses and chasis exposed by the missing heater box to double check they're all in good nick.
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