Should have been titled how to make sure that your dash cracks your glove box doesn't close right that everything goes to shit while you devalue your pickup and look like an idiot doing it but be sure to post it on KZfaq so everybody sees it!!!

Nice hack job...but I mean that in a positive way. I've done 3 evap cores and 2 heater cores on 20+ year old Toyotas.....and while a pain, everything came out and went back in without breaking anything. I did ONE evap core on a 2000 Silverado the "proper way" using a proper shop manual.....NEVER again. So many plastic pieces broke that my friend thought I was speaking in tongues I was swearing unintelligibly. Great video, this is THE proper way on an old GM.

Well done, old school thought process. Fix what is broke without deconstructing the entire vehicle…

Thank you much for this great hack, you're my kind of mechanic. God bless you 🙏

Great shortcut! Reminds me of the time I cut a nice hole under the back seat of my Mazda 626 to get that fuel pump changed. Gotta love engineers

Wow, this is your most viewed video (by a long ways)! Kind of surprised me at first then I realized it probably gets searched every summer when guys are trying to get ACs working in their old trucks. Love that you’re still answering comments 2 years later. 👍🏻

Hell yeah that’s what I’m talking about, I rather do that on my truck than think of what a normal mechanic would charge me if he was doing it the right way. It would cost more than what the truck is worth lol😂

Perfect video 👌. In the middle of doing the job right now along with a new accumulator and compressor

In a old beat/rusted/up old truck I love this ideal

Great clear video instructions without wasting time talking about and promoting yourself.

Instead of trash talk. Post your vids of pulling your 20+ yr old dash and doing this "the right way" then show me how good it came out. Meanwhile my a/c is blowin snow in the fl heat. Jobs done, im cleaned up and your still crackin your dash pad, still 2hrs away from exposing the evap core.. not to mention most of you diy "tubers" won't have much dash left to put back in. Please excuse my experience. Its just an opinion like everyone else...

Same thing on the newer Chevy evaporator coil temp sensors. Instead of pulling the dash you can cut a 1" hole.

I just paid $45 for three 12 oz cans of 134a; thanks Brandon!

Great video. Thank you for sharing. I’ve been driving around with no A/C, dreading having to replace my evaporator the conventional way

Customers vehicle? Absolutely no Personal vehicle? Where's my oscillating tool.

Short and Sweet, thank you, great job!

Interesting… If I were to suggest anything. There are some videos of basically wielding plastic. The short, use a soldering iron to melt it and use some more plastic as a rod. Like tig. Great hack! Thanks for sharing. 🍻🍻🍻

Thank you guys for the nice video I was about to ripoff my dashboard

Thanks for the info. Its nice to know in wich direction the evap. sits . I have a 2002 silverado and if the Evaporator ever goes bad , this is how I will replace it .

My suggestion for the glove box door. The cut made on the left side should have been made on the left side of the bolt hole. That way with only drilling two more holes and two small pieces of flat bar you could remount the bar you cut out on both sides. As long as you cut the Evaporator box neatly and in one piece, aluminum hvac tape should seal the cut out piece just fine.

Great video , thanks for sharing, very well explained , and using that JB weld to put everything back together is a great clean idea

Very clever hack.👍🏻👍🏻

The lower dash part isn’t bad to remove, I’d would have done that..the cut to the plastic was nice. I’ll definitely keep this in mind if I ever have to change mine out

what size was the bolts that you used bolt back into the evaporator core the old one has the studs the new one doesnt just pulled mine out and same thing the new one doesnt have the studs

How you get the glove box door remounted and not rattle every drive making you kick the dash inside out lol?

This is amazing content! Right when I gave up hope and except the fact that I’d never have ac in my 99 tahoe again, I run into this video. I mean I totally refuse to take that dash out! But thanks to you guys I don’t have to!👏🏽👏🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽

Great video! I would use "The right stuff," made by Permatex for gluing it back in. It comes in a caulking gun tube. Make sure you give it a full "48 hrs." To dry, because then it is strongest. Ask me how I know! It is easy to cut when you need to replace the evaporator again. They used "the right stuff" to seal a huge hole in an engine block on a boat on KZfaq and it worked great!

Excellent video. Beats the hell out of taking your entire dash out just to get to the evaporator

Got it done. Thanks 😊🙏

This worked great for my old pickup. Would do it again. I had some condensate leaking onto my floorboard, but I bet if you're careful, you can seal it up to condensate drains through the drain.

I’m in the middle of doing this project. I wish I had seen this video before I started. It would’ve been easy if only I had known in advance.

Dude that was amazing! Saved me sooo much time and headache. When you star pulling older dashboards out for this repair they usually crack everywhere. This is the only way to do it imo.

why is people complaining by him doing it this way? It's genius. once you put everything back youre not even going to know. anything was done.

@Joe's Shop OMG this is GOLD right here. Even tho I have a 2012 'Tahoe, I think alot of this will apply as far as this job is concerned... SUBSCRIBING! Thanks for sharing!

Great video chief

This is awesome and great to know, any heater core short cuts lol

Thanks love this I got the tools and a shop and will never remove a dash cut cut snip snip

What size are the nuts that go to the accumulator and ac line? And thread size if you happen to know it, at some point someone was working on that on my truck and they didn't put the line back so I'm missing one

What if someone did this before you bought your truck what's that whole piece called if you want to buy a new one to replace that?

Hi Joe... my sons 2001 s10 just stopped cooling.... this might come in handy when we decide to tackle that... but for now, I hope it just needs charging.. but I doubt we get that lucky.. lol.. have a gooden

Thanks for showing this technique. Is your vehicle engine a Duramax or gas? My shop is telling me that evaporators for my '04 Duramax are not available and that the gas engine a/c evaps are not compatible with the diesel models. I do have two torx heads on my firewall fitting that I don't see in the fitting on this video.

No doubt about it, IM GONNA DO THE EXACT SAME THING. Im convinced the only reason the behind the dash "coffin" was ever designed was to SPIKE HIGH GM service department revenue. Dude they sure could've designed it with door covers just luke a cabin filter cover, abd done it for the heater core too..... SHADE TREE HACKS THAT ROCK💪💪💪

Thank you thank you thank you great idea for my 92 silverado

Could you shine your black light on the water dripping from the ac and see it it had ac refrigerant in it? it would glow if it had something in it.

So does it leak condensation on the passenger floor now that the pan is no longer a solid molded piece?

Glad it worked for you. Not my style though. Replaced in a 99 via dash removal method. I guess that sawsall method is just as good. Or not.

Dumb question but can you access the heater core this way? I figured if i was in there i might as well replace it too if this gives you access

Hey had to change fuel pump on my 97 Silverado. It called for dropping the gas tank or lifting the bed to get to it. Well i just cut a square access hole straight over top of fuel pump. Put hinges on the squre i cut out wnd niw i have a open and shut window to fuel pump at any time. For some people it had to be by the book for me it has to be by common sence. See these car and truck builders do these type of things on purpose knowing the customer will pay for all that shop and mechanic time. If only thongs where made like they was back in the day life would be better. Gotta do what you gotta do.

What’s that part number for that trim plastic (1.00) under the glove box

not my current issue but im glad i saw this, if an whenever my evap needs replacing, im doing it like this lol

What width did you cut. It looks like it can be gaged by 2 or 3 rib sections. If I could load a pic I could explain better how I see it in sections. Th aka for sharing this hack.

U could rebuild it in a way that allows future access like a little door. But it does have to keep some pressure 🤔 I guess that's fine honestly because you won't go back in there for years hopefully. U can cut the glue out again easily if necessary. It's a god damn shame that's the most sane option for fixing it 😆

Have you run into any issues with hack way of doing this? Would you do it this way if you had to do it again? I’m all about doing things right, but the thought of everything else that could go wrong with pulling the dash seems to favor cutting the box. Not to mention what, 10+ hours of extra work. Thanks for the video and research!

I recently changed out the compressor and accumulator and changed all the seals even on the condenser. I never thought about the evaporator. Could this be the reason why my new compressor won't engage because the evaporator is bad? System will not hold compression either.

Are you able to reuse the Glove box afterwards and not have anything rattle around?

My air wasn’t working properly. I used stop leak, but I think that took out my compressor. I know one of the Schrader valves was leaking, but I feel like it’s probably this damn evaporator core too. I’ll do this in about 10 seconds. The only thing I would probably do different as use some HVAC tape to secure it back in place, and if it happens again, it’s even easier than the first time!

I checked online I found the generic 99 Silverado evap core R&R price is $1400 to $1600 this process saves about 1000 well fucking done

Whats the chances you could cut the bottom or side of the airbox to get the heater core out?

What about glove box? Did it rattle after cutting that brace? Dash rattle?

Great video thank you. work for me.save time and money.Thank you again...

If a guy took his time, and paid real close attention to what he was doing, this method would work well on an old beater truck. I would pay closer attention to how I cut off the plastic, and make sure a few locating tabs to help hold it in place while epoxy set. The removal of the glovebox support is also not something I would do personally. I would try to leave a way to reattach it somehow, but that’s not hard to fabricate. Lots of hate for this guy, but it’s a decent hack. Literally 😆

Need a follow up video on how to put it back together now

I think someone did this to my truck before I got it so now the are doesn't make its way up to the vents what do you do to fix that put it back on there and then glue it maybe I

I’m going to do this tonight it’s too hot during the day and I’ll get a fine from my apt complex lol

im curious on a update... how bad does it rattle? did you have any leak issues? flex tape sealed my hole in bottom of pool and i applied it while pool was full. maybe apply over glue?

Not a bad hack. Just got done replacing it. I just want to know what’s best to seal it back up. I used the same jb weld but it’s leaking through it

Hi, do you have to discharge the ac before doing this?

2004 had Cat Eye headlights so this looks like an older truck. Basically the same other than front end.

Curious how many people take a vehicle to a shop and they say we can fix the evaporator coil for $300 this way or $1,500 to do it right how many would choose this

Can I do the same thing on a 2008

It would be cheaper for the elderly people to pay the repair shop to do it this way than the tedious factory way, with these $115/hr. Labor rates.

My question here is.. I got the same problem rite now , I have a leak inside my cab I have a 99 gmc Sierra 1500 but I ask a mechanic if he can just cut it and replace it, but he said it wouldn’t be a good idea because then water is gonna be leaking inside cab because that thing gets full of water, is that true? I want to do it my self , everything else is new except that can y’all help me out with this question please??? Thank you!!! And I need to do it ASAP!!! Cause I live in Florida and is so damn HOT!!! 😁👍🏽

Can you remove heater core the same way?

Woohoo no struggles with dash 🙌

Is the procedure the same for a 08 gmc sierra

Hello. Seems like I have the same issue. Any update on the ac. Did it hold up the frion. I'm having the same problem

Any chance of a shortcut for the heater core?

I do not understand why they just do not make a plate for the firewall(if room to pull it out engine side).

all I know is....I KNEW there had to be an easier way!!! What a nightmare & rookie engineering job from GM....or they planned it that way????? Thank you for this!!!

If you didn't video the glove box going back in without any rattles it didn't happen. Good hack though but not showing the glove box re-installation is an indication it didn't go right.

Savage. But a serious saving in time an labor.

Have a heater core hack for 2001 chevy 1500?

Did you replace the filter or anything else?

Now I'm really worried that my 99 Silverado is going to be leaking thru this part. My air compressor kicks on and off, and when it does seem to work, it only blows cool & not cold. I wish I could know for sure why it doesn't work. But I don't have time to let my truck sit for too long in a shop because its my only form of transportation.

Good idea 👍

So is this the common spot they leak? My compressor went bad so i put a new one in and it works great for 3,4 weeks. Slow leak somewhere but I see no dye!!! Assuming it is indeed the evaporator.😊

Can the heater core be extracted this way ?

why not show the finished product and how it looks?

I’m normally a “do it the right way” even if it’s a hard job kind of guy, but I’ve been under the dashes on enough of these trucks to know how much of a pain they are. So many opportunities to create more problems than you’re solving. I have an 02 that’s I’m pretty sure the evaporator is leaking on. Probably gonna go this route… thanks for posting!

That's what I'm about to do to my 24 year old silverado, forget taking that dash off.

Can you do the heater core the same way

This truck is a 99-02 don’t try this on a 03-07 classic our evap Core boxes are different I tried this and now I have to change out my whole box I have a 04 Tahoe and they changed the style

I’m just glad that all these auto makers can save $25 a vehicle by not having the evaporator core serviceable through an access panel

What about the heater core?

Can you do this on a 2012 tahoe

That COULD have been designed with a removable cover and cross member which would have eliminated the horribly time consuming nightmare of dismantling the dash.

Dash assembly is pretty strait forward. I don’t believe that the air conditioning is important enough to destroy your dash. Good luck

Dremel with a 90 degree and cutting wheel.

Awesome video its messed up how these things are designed to replace a simple part when they could put an access panel to replace their cheapo parts they use…

Oh we can tell you were definitely huffing Freon before you made this video , Nothing wrong with you LOL