To give you an idea of what has to be done, sit in the car, look left, look right, everything that you see between you and the back side of the windshield has to come out.  And then there's stuff that you can't see.  It's gotta come out too.

The short answer is, it's a pain in the ass. On the other hand, having heat that works is a good thing.  Keep driving it and it'll start dumping coolant on the inside of the car so change it soon.  Also, get some foam tape, the stuff inside your heater box is now worthless and if you don't change it while everything is out it will slowly disintegrate and blow out of the vents until the end of time.

I can't remember if those had a 2 piece heater box or not but if yours does at least you can change the heater core out without having to empty the A/C system.

Oh, and while changing the heater core may not be the most fun thing in the world to do, when it works it's light years ahead of anything almost any aircooled car could dream of having.  And when the heater system fails on a water cooled car it won't fill the cabin with carbon monoxide and other nasty exhaust gasses.

P.S.  Go get a Bentley   

It's a time-consuming job - there's a lot of screws to take out.  Going off the top of my head:  Disconnect the negative battery cable, remove the driver's airbag (2 5mm allen bolts), remove the steering wheel (24? mm nut), remove the wiper/turn signals, remove the radio (go to Pep Boys and get some Ford radio removal tools, they'll work on VW radios too). 

Remove the vents in the center stack and remove the screws.  Close the vents first and it'll keep the screws from dropping down into the A/C system.  Remove the screws for the control head but leave the control cables connected when you pull everything, less to put back together.  Remove the instrument cluster, a battery-powered screwdriver is really handy when taking out all the phillips head screws, they're a really fine thread pitch and about 20 mm long.

There's a hidden 10 mm nut on the outside behind the wiper motor so you may find it easier to remove the wiper linkage and motor to get to it.  There's also a couple of nuts on the A/C box behind the heat shield on the firewall but there's flaps cut into the heat shield so that you can access them.

There's really no "gotcha's", just take your time and I've found that when taking a dash out for the first time, copious notes and pictures help when getting to the "installation is the reverse of removal" phase  .  Be careful when putting all the screws back in, remember the plastic is probably pretty brittle by now so don't get too crazy when putting everything back together.

Obviously, the above instructions aren't complete but it'll give you an idea of what you have to look forward to 

I think most places quote around 8 hours labor x whatever their hourly rate is.  IIRC,  the dealer is up around 100 bucks an hour and I've no idea what the independent guys are charging these days.  Since there's a few of them on here perhaps they'll chime in and give you an idea.

BTW, the foam tape I always used on the heaters was part number 155-298-121.  It's about 6 bucks from busdepot.com and is more than enough to refoam your blend doors in the heater system.  However, be sure to clean the metal on the blend doors really well before applying or like any other style/brand of tape it won't stick for very long.  It's also good for fixing rattles just about anywhere in the car.

hal is right about 8 hours,  no one likes to do them, you can alway bypass the heater core and have no heat

Quote from: travisyoung on November 24, 2011, 12:03:02 PM

hal is right about 8 hours,  no one likes to do them, you can alway bypass the heater core and have no heat

Having no heat kind'a defeats the purpose of a water-cooled engine doesn't it?   

I wouldn't say that was a reason. I remember back in the '40's and some '50's cars that a heater was  optional. My Dad bought a new '46 Chevy and had a Southwind gas heater installed. He thought the $15.00 for the optional water heater cost to much for the amount of heat you got. Times sure have changed huh 

Mine needs to be done as well.  I'll break down and take it to Rick after Christmas when I'm tired of shoving the whole lot of me while wearing a whole lot of Carhart into the cab of my cabrio. 

And Zen, I'm WAY past putting the appropriate amount of money into my car.  At this point, what's another $800 between a VW owner and their baby?  Right?  Guys?  Is this this on?   

I'm right there with you kiddies....

The heater tube for the bus is sitting in the corner by the back door at the shop...

It's pretty darned cold in that little guy right now...