Hi there,
I've been referred to this board after having no luck on bimmerforums.com and bimmerclassics.net. I've already searched the topics here too and couldn't find the answer.
Here's my situation. I want to replace my heater core and I found out that there are 2 different types of heater cores for the E30, one with plastic inlet and one with aluminum inlet. I am guessing one is for non-AC and the other is for AC as the one I have and the one I removed from are both non-AC; and the AC cars that I have personally seen have the aluminum inlet pipe. The heater box and blowers are also designed differently. Bentley and Haynes only cover the removal procedures for the aluminum inlet style heater core. With the aluminum inlet style heater core, it is possible to wiggle it out in the tight space between the heater box and the steering column; but the plastic inlet heater core is much longer and wider and will hit the steering column with only 1/4 of it protruding out of the heater box.
I see 2 options of removing the heater core:
1) Remove the heater box, this also means I have to remove the dash and everything that is linked to it. I am familiar with this, as the heater core I got from my friend's car is the same style and we ended up ripping everything out to get it.
2) Remove the steering column. This seems most logical, but I found no literature about the removal of this. Looking at the steering column, there are 2 sheer bolts (as I learned they are called) holding them. They are coned-shaped and there is no way of gripping them with any tools. I thought about grinding them off and them replace them with regular bolts; but I need some confirmation that the column can be remove that way and that I CAN replace the bolts.
Can anyone help???
Here's a link with pictures to my topic on bimmerforums.com:
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...d.php?t=835711
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...d.php?t=836661
I've been referred to this board after having no luck on bimmerforums.com and bimmerclassics.net. I've already searched the topics here too and couldn't find the answer.
Here's my situation. I want to replace my heater core and I found out that there are 2 different types of heater cores for the E30, one with plastic inlet and one with aluminum inlet. I am guessing one is for non-AC and the other is for AC as the one I have and the one I removed from are both non-AC; and the AC cars that I have personally seen have the aluminum inlet pipe. The heater box and blowers are also designed differently. Bentley and Haynes only cover the removal procedures for the aluminum inlet style heater core. With the aluminum inlet style heater core, it is possible to wiggle it out in the tight space between the heater box and the steering column; but the plastic inlet heater core is much longer and wider and will hit the steering column with only 1/4 of it protruding out of the heater box.
I see 2 options of removing the heater core:
1) Remove the heater box, this also means I have to remove the dash and everything that is linked to it. I am familiar with this, as the heater core I got from my friend's car is the same style and we ended up ripping everything out to get it.
2) Remove the steering column. This seems most logical, but I found no literature about the removal of this. Looking at the steering column, there are 2 sheer bolts (as I learned they are called) holding them. They are coned-shaped and there is no way of gripping them with any tools. I thought about grinding them off and them replace them with regular bolts; but I need some confirmation that the column can be remove that way and that I CAN replace the bolts.
Can anyone help???
Here's a link with pictures to my topic on bimmerforums.com:
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...d.php?t=835711
http://forums.bimmerforums.com/forum...d.php?t=836661