Yay, a Metro update.
So, as things have been getting colder, I've been noticing that my heat hasn't been blowing quite as hot as it did last year. So, I've been thinking about flushing the heater core out and today was the day to do it. It was a blissful 25F and sunny out. While I was expecting to freeze my butt off, it actually wasn't all that bad.
So, lets get down to business. Here is the patient and the operating table for today. The Jetta is currently immobile in the garage, so I get the snowy driveway to work in yay.
Thankfully, Suzuki knew of my predicament 16 years in advance (what foresight!) and conveniently placed the heater core lines in a very easy to reach place. The two hoses going into the firewall in the middle of the picture are what you're looking for.
So, I removed the hoses and drained the coolant into a pan.
The next step involves looking like a complete nutcase to your neighbor(s). Go grab the garden hose and hook it up!
Thankfully, I've had this radiator flush kit sitting on my shelf for jeez at least 5 years now. It turns out its really handy. It hooks up to the garden hose and with some 5/8" radiator hose conveniently hooks up to the heater core.
Since I was doing things solo, I didn't get a chance to see all the gunk come out of the heater core. I did flush it and then backflush it (water in the other side). I also went ahead and flushed the block and the radiator while I was at it. For those of you wondering, the answer is yes. There is a huge chunk of ice in my driveway now.
So, time to button things up and fill it up with coolant, right? Nope. Buddy, this here is EcoModder and we don't do things that way. We add a 1000W Kats block heater while we are at it.
I'm not going to get too far into this because bbsjw10 did a great write up on a
Metro block heater install that I pretty much just copied.
Okay, so now we refill the coolant and make sure everything works good, and it does. The heat blows a good amount warmer now which is really great for defrosting windshields and fingers!
Also, more for my record keeping than anything I also fixed my really not amazing grill block. The zip tie broke, so I replaced it. The passenger side block has been gone for quite some time.
