How to Remove a Heater Core on a 1996 Honda Accord
To distribute heat throughout your 1996 Accord, Honda installed a basic heater core. The coolant in your vehicle, after being heated, will pass through your heater core's tubes. Used during colder weather, the heater core's metallic tubes and fins circulate air heated by the coolant into the cabin of your Accord by a fan system. When you "turn on" the heat, you are, in fact, turning on a fan to push the heat in. However, over time, heater cores can go bad, mainly due to corrosion, and must be removed.
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Instructions
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Strap on your safety goggles. The coolant in the heater core and the hoses connecting to it can leak fluids that can be harmful to your eyes.
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Locate your Accord's heater core. Pop your hood and look below the windshield. The firewall is the exterior shell of your dash. You'll find the heater core on the firewall. It will look like your radiator, but smaller.
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3
Remove the hoses from the heater core. Clamps with bands around the hoses apply tension to safely keep the hoses in place. Use your socket wrench to remove the bolts in the hoses. Use your flat head screwdriver to lift and remove the metal clamps from the hoses.
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Drain the coolant inside the heater core hoses. The hoses are what carry the coolant into the heater core. Put the drain pan underneath your Accord, directly below the heater core.
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Use your socket wrench and unbolt the heater core core valve from the heater core. The cable attaching the heater core valve to the heater core can be removed with the socket wrench.
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Remove the heater core from the firewall. Four bolts hold the heater core onto the firewall. Use your socket wrench to extract the bolts.
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Tips & Warnings
Save the bolts from the removed heater core for future installation of a replacement.
Before removing your heater core, let your Accord sit for a minimum of sixty minutes. This will allow the coolant temperature levels to cool.
