Surprised I have not seen a heater core thread with the winter so near.
I did my Golf 88 yesterday. I actually got the core from Ebay cheap. First time I did a heater core on an A2.
I called VW of America a couple times over the last few years. With all the posts of getting done for free, I gave them my VIN and they said it was not covered. (88 GolfGL - Westmoreland).
Anyway it is done now and a few posts in the archives suggest to do it yourself if you can as the dealers are known to break stuff rushing.
Actually it was but there's nobody left there that remembers a2's. All a2's built before Jan on 91 were affected and even ones built after that were quietly replaced. I had a over a dozen a2's heater cores both US golfs and German jettas replaced from 85 92 (all year of a2's).
Perhaps I should have called VW of America multiple times to try to get a person BUT they did take my VIN number and firmly stated my 88 Golf heater core was not covered. Another angle may have been to simply call a service manager at a local dealer who may know how to charge VWA for it
Anyway, I did it myself and just as well as the reports of damage by the dealers doing these with techs in a hurry. I believe it is considered a "shit job" at the dealer so one is not going to get the best tech to do it, according to what I have read.
The problem I had that was really just a bit of a nuisance, was that the whole stud was turning and the nut would not come off on the lower fastener through the firewall for the heater box. (2 fasteners from the heater box that go through the firewall, vertically spaced inches apart)
I found out later that the other side of the stud simply is a screw that goes into a plastic boss on the heater box on the other side, so, actually just turning the whole stud enough would unscrew it on the other side. I gripped the taper on the end of the stud with small vise grips while I turned the nut off - this actually is safer than risking cracking the plastic boss on the heater box while yanking it off
- though that may be stretching.
There is a lot of conflicting information in the archives about doing this core replacement on A2s
As most know, Bentley is wrong about having to remove the whole dash.
For a car with a bad core, this has got to be one of the most satisfying repairs you can do to restore heat.
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