Hey. Just purchased a 93 Aerostar a few weeks ago. When I turn the heat on, I can really smell coolant and it leaves a film on the inside of my windshield. thinking it might be the heater core. How big of a job is that to replace and how expensive? Any other ideas as what might be causing this. Don't want to waste time and money if that's not what it is. Anybody else had this prob?

Thanks

 

IT sounds like the heator core to me too. Hard.....Yea. You can get cheap (really cheap) cores on ebay but you get what you pay for.

I changed one on a 91 and it was a pain. One of the hardest parts is getting the hoses disconnected at the firewall. I ended up taking a dremil (sp?) tool and cutting the tube of the core. I think from the 93 and up they added a bypass valve in that area. That should make the job harder.

Then there is getting the core out from under the dash. Not easy. Hope you have a helper. I didn't. The cheap core I used did mount like the OEM one. But I was doing the job free ( I paid for the core too) for a friend of my wife's.

You should look at a Chiltons or Haynes manual. I would strongly suggest doing a search here as there are several of us who have done the deed and wrote about it. However, the search button is missing at the moment. I don't know why. I have seen one guess so far. Maybe someone else will chime in here on the core change issue with their two cents too.

Good luck.

 

I just did my 93 (again) and it is just a few hours job. Drop the glovebox door and remove the screws holding the heatercore access door in place (I believe that there are 3 of them). To help with access inside the van, remove the passenger side kick panel. In the engine bay remove the airbox and the ingition module from the inner fender (one screw and a plug) to get access. I went the easy route and replaced the quick connect hose ends with regular clamps (it holds tight). Tricks: break the tubes off of the heater core (it's going into the trash anyway) to get the heater hoses out. When putting the heater core in I trimmed a little off of the lip on the bottom of the heater box so that the heater core would go in easier. If going with the mexican made auto parts heater core, one tube is bigger than the other and the foam in the heater tube hole needs to be trimmed for it to go into the hole into the engine compartment. The whole job is not as bad as it sounds and it is better than paying someone to do it.

 

Thanks for the info guys. I'll show this to my husband so he can get to work!! lol. Is this a common problem in these vans?

 

Ford heater cores generally go at the 8-10 year mark.

 

Testimony to trouble: I tried one of those universal replacements found on eBay and like tom_foreman stated, you get what you pay for. In this case, the core was smaller all the way around than the original meaning it will not mount securely within the heater box without rigging some kind of padding around it. Since it doesn't seat in the box correctly you don't get full air flow through core as much escapes around the unsealed edges. Secondly and more frustrating, one of the lips the quick connect fitting attaches to was soldered on too far back and the quick connect would not snap over it correctly. Unless you have actually done a core replacement you cannot fully appreciate what this means in real work terms - let alone the blood sacrifice required. Four times I thought I had everything buttoned up and each time, after replacing coolant, the errant connection would start leaking. It finally dawned on me to measure the old core connection points agains the new and then discovered the problem. At that point I just threw that thing away and got one from Ford. Everything snapped together the first try and they all lived happily ever after. End of story.

 

My Ford core failed after 1 1/2 years, so I did the cheapy this time. All I did was get a piece of 3/8 inch heater hose and clamped it to the larger pipe, got a stepped piece of pipe (3/8th down to 5/16 I believe) and then clamped it to the rest of the the heater hose. I have had no leaks or problems. All I did for stability was to add a piece of AC insulating foam underneath and no wobble. Heat works great so far (crosses fingers). Hopefully it will be durable and last longer than the Ford piece did (busted core).

 

https://www.ford-trucks.com/forums/s...d.php?t=167404

Check this out...

 

WOW! thanks alot. That was very informative and helpful. Hopefully we can get this fixed on the weekend seeing how it's starting to get pretty chilly around here.

 

Your Welcome,

Obviously by my response on the linked thread, I was minimalizing the actual way to change the heater core out of the Aerostar. But "The Grand Poobah" wrote up an absolutely awesome tutorial. Aerocolorado is the expert here on the A-star, no doubt about it!!! Follow it and you will be fine.

 

Aerocolorado, I would vote for him as our President! With his expertise, in changing an Aerostar heater core, he should be Commander-In-Chief for the USA. I could not agree more. It's better to pony up for the extra money and get an original Ford part. Those cheap "one core fits most" causes more problems than it's worth. I too, hated those Ford "quick connect" fittings on the firewall! They might be fine on a brand new van (I know it saves time as the Aerostar is being built) but they are a pain to remove years later. Also, guess what caused my heater core to leak? About two years ago a tech convinced me to use the orange Dex-Cool (havoline) coolant. I was skeptical, with this ASE "certified" tech assured me this was the way to go. Reluctantly, I agreed. 4 months later, I began to notice the dreaded "coolant film" on the windshield, after a freeway run. Did some research, and discovered the numerous horror stories from Dex-Cool. Immediately drained and flushed the Dex-Cool out. Took my Aerostar back to the shop that did the work, they flaked. Basically said, due to the age of my Aerostar (1987) the heater core could of went at any time. Luckily, no problems with the water pump. The van never overheated with the orange Dex-Cool, in the hot NoCal summers temps, but I would never touch the stuff again. When I replaced the heater hoses during the core change, I spliced in a quick disconnect coupling in the hoses. This way, I can back flush the heater core when I perform the normal once a year flushing of the cooling system. Replaced top and bottom hoses, Motorcraft 195 degree new thermostat. Insulated the heater hoses. No problems, and the old van has HOT HOT heat, front and rear. The van gets toasty warm , quick, even with the fan settings at the first (slow) position. Defrosters work like new as well.