leaky heater core...

[Brett Garret]

My brother's 98 Expedition started leaking coolant the other day from an unknown source. He goes to Blinn in College Station and knows jack on cars. So I told him to take it to a mom and pop shop to have it looked at. They said it was a leaky heater core. They said to fix something like that its a 7 hour job and usually expensive and said they would not do it. I have never heard of this happening. What should I know about a leaky heater core? Can someone give me some advice on where to point the kid?

[hockeyman]

If you know the in's & outs of the car you are working on, then it's about a 2-3 hour job depending on the accessibility of the h-core. More than likely, the underside of the dasdboard on the passenger side must be torn apart to get to the core. This is most of the work. Getting to the two heater hoses on the firewall is relatively easy, *again* on most cars. If you have a relative or friend that has done work like this before, ask them to take a look at it and see if they'll replace it.
It's not hard to replace them, just time consuming.
Maybe that Mom-n-Pop shop had prior experience with Expeditions, and didn't want to take another shot at one. Did you ask them why they didn't want to try it?