Removing the heater housing from the car

Let's get the heaterbox out of the car! Follow the procedure "Dashboard removal" to get the interior of your car to look something like this:

First remove the metal frames around the heater:

The pasenger side frame is bolted to the car in four places:

The driver side frame is secured by bolts in three places:

To remove the bolt in the middle you have to twist the bracket in front of it out of the way. To do this slacken the two nuts on the sides of the bracket:

Remove the two nuts holding the IHKA box to the frames and remove both frames from the car.

Remove the connector that connects the IHKA wiring loom to the car. It's the grey connector under the driverside glovebox.

Now it's time to start removing things under the hood. The first thing to do is remove the two plastic nuts holding the coolant expansion. After that remove the four plastic nuts holding the metal wiring support.

After undoing the 5 screws shown in the picture below remove the bulkhead panel. Watch out for the brake line that's in the way.

Now you will see a plastic cover over the blower motor housing. This cover is loose in there so carefully pull it out of the way without breaking it.

Now it gets messy so you best put a container under the car to catch the coolant that will flow out while removing the three hoses that go to the heater matrix. I used a piece of garden hose to blow most of the coolant out of the heater matrix through these three pipes. If you don't do this coolant will leak all over the interiour of your car.

Time to remove the aircon pipes that connect to the heater housing. You did remember to have the gas removed from the aircon system didn't you ??

Chances are the outside airflaps on the left and rightside of the blower motor are in the way of the screws you are about to undo. To get them to close you can remove the stepper motor from it's frame inside the car.

Now remove the five screws that hold the heaterunit to the bulkhead. They have the same placing as the bulkhead panel that you removed ealier.

The upper screw on the driver side can only be reached by removing the plastic insert in the wiper assembly.

Remove the 2 plastic pieces connecting the housing to the airduct of the rear footweel. After that you are ready to lift the unit from the car. I put the passengerseat all the way back and lifted the unit out on my own. You could have someone else hold a container under the three pipes that go to the heater matrix as coolant can still leak from there.

Now just sit back and enjoy the space and view you have created :)

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