Great Success!

After many hours of wrestling with the stubborn heater box, I was able to extract it and get to the actual repairs. Popping in a new blower motor and heater core only ended up taking about 15 minutes, and most of that time spent on realigning the flaps to close the heater box.

Everything tested out fine. The blower motor kicked on nice and strong right away. Heat started pumping out as soon as the engine started warming up. Nice! However, before I can truly say I'm done I should really flush the coolant and refill the whole system for the new winter season.

Putting everything back together should go fast, and usually does. I think it took me about 1/3 the time to put things back together compared to the amount of time it took me to take it all apart.

One advantage to performing your own repairs is finding out what other people screwed up in the past. It's also really frustrating. I found electrical connectors that had been left disconnected, lights left out of their sockets, vents not properly connected, etc. Just by taking the time to work on this particular problem I was also able to:

• reconnect the controls for the passenger seat heater
• reinstall the ashtray light
• reinstall the lighter light
• optimize the routing of electrical cabling - it was a rats nest
• properly install the trim paneling
• properly connect two air vents
• properly install the boot for the gear shifter

I'm also better set up to tackle some other nagging issues. Now I know how to remove the trim to gain access to a defective switch which tells me my parking brake is permanently engaged, how to access the wiring for the stereo, how to replace my windshield wipers, etc.

The biggest downside to performing your own repairs is knowing when you cut corners. I didn't have enough rubber foam for the heater core installation, so it's not tightly fit. I should have sealed some components with silicon sealant, but I didn't have any on hand. I should have flushed the system right away, but I just wanted to call it quits for the night.

The most important lesson I've learned this time is to pay close attention to whether or not electrical components should be reconnected prior to reinstalling them. I failed to hook the windshield wipers up, thinking I would still have enough space afterwards. I ended up having to pull them back off. Thankfully, I was only set back 5-10 minutes.

With all the work completed, it's worthy to note that the cold outside is so much better when it's warm inside.