Changing heater o rings

Morning everyone

Searching the history of doing this little job, I see that one person says don't drain water out first, just improvise a cardboard funnel to direct any water into a bowl in the footwell when you break the seal of the o rings. This seems a good way to go to me - is this the normal thing to do? And how much water escapes?

If not this way, I would prefer to let as little water out as possible (to try and avoid any air lock problems when re-filling) so where is the best place to drain it out. I thought about the hoses on the other end of the pipes that I'm renewing the o-rings, but then wondered whether it would be best not to mess with these in case I disturb th o-rings when reconnecting after doing the job.

Any advice please,

Good morning, a little reading matter, you don't have to drain the engine side of the cooling system just the heater side of the bulkhead

http://www.landyzone.co.uk/lz/f10/heater-core-o-rings-68446.html

hth

zzr

Cheers for that - you mean just let the water drain out when you release the o rings or is there a drain plug? I know I'm ignorant!

f1roborbob said:

Cheers for that - you mean just let the water drain out when you release the o rings or is there a drain plug? I know I'm ignorant!

Click to expand...

I disconnected to heater hoses under the bonnet up by the bulkhead to allow movement inside the vehicle. Cover the transmission tunnel with a binbag then an old large towel to soak up the anti freezewater (about a pint or less I would think), just don't over tighten the screw holding the 2 pipes (more of a nip up than tight). Someone somewhere states the screw/thread size just in case you should drop/lose it (try searching or pm'ing Irishover he would probably know the screw size). O Ring are not hard just fidderly.