Has anyone on here ever replaced the heater core on a 06 Dodge Ram? My son has a 06 3500 mega cab & the heater core is out of it. We was wanting to replace it ourselves, lookes pretty tuff. Any advice? Thanks Chuck

 

I've had the dash and the HVAC box out on my 06 quad cab.

It is time consuming, but nothing particularly complicated. The only tools the typical home garage wouldn't have would be the stuff to evacuate the refrigerant and to dry and refill the AC system.

 

When you say remove the dash, do you mean the cover & the tubing metal structure behind the dash cover, to get to the hvac box? Thanks for your help.

 

The entire dash comes out as an assembly.



This thread about taking the HVAC box apart, and the thread it links to about removing the dash will be very helpful.

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/....html?t=210483

On the 06, the fluid bottle has to be unbolted to get to the other studs holding the HVAC box to the dash (different from the one shown in the thread).

Also, if I were going to do it again, I'd pull the extra couple bolts and remove the steering column completely. Though you can do it with the column lowered down as in my photo, the extra couple seconds to remove it would get it out of the way.

 

P.S.

I just saw these were your first posts. Welcome to the forum. I've learned a ton from the wealth of information here.

 

Thanks for the welcome & the info!

 

With the dash out of the way, will i be able to take the bottom of the havc box off? I didn't want to mess with the ac unless there is no other way around it. Thanks Chuck

 

No, I think (but I'm not positive) you will have to remove the HVAC case from the cab, which does require unhooking the AC evaporator.

Here's the HVAC case.



The heater core is mounted horizontally, between two sets of blend doors.

 

Wow, that job looks daunting! I don't know if I would have enough courage to strip my dash off.

 

It really isn't as bad as it looks. A bunch of trim comes off, a bunch of electric connectors come off, and there's some bolts along the front by the defroster, a couple up from the column support, and a few bolts on each side.