The passenger-side kick panel needs to be removed, too, along with the surrounding trim connected to the kick panel.
Once everything is out of the way, the heater core and blower can be removed from under the dash.
Remove the linkage that's attached to the climate control sliders. This makes it easier to move the entire unit around.
Now it's time to remove the bolts and screws that cover the heater core. The backside of the heater core and its mount are visible in this shot, but a few more bolts and screws need to be removed in order to gain access.
These three bolts are all that stand between us and removing the core.
At last we can take this leaky heater core out. It seems like we had to unbolt half of the vehicle in order to gain access to it, but we did it.
Here's the shell that's left behind.
Unscrew the brackets that hold the core to its mount and it's ready to be replaced.
Heater cores are nothing glamorous to look at, but we included a side-by-side shot of the new one with the old one. We picked ours up at a local parts store. A new core should cost no more than $30 to $40.
Put the new core in and have fun reassembling everything. It may seem like a laborious task, and it is, but paying a shop to do it would run a lot more dollars than many of us are willing to spend.