I need some advice. I think my heating core might be starting to get bad. the car has 82,000 miles on it. i want to avoid replacing the heating core because of the PITA that i hear it takes to replace it. What can I do to prevent it
You can't. Every Ford I've ever owned (EXCEPT my current 96 T-Bird, which I'm now JINXING by saying this!) has had to have the heater core replaced at some point. This includes Torinos, Econolines, 2 84 1/2 GT's, and a 92 Taurus!
I need some advice. I think my heating core might be starting to get bad. the car has 82,000 miles on it. i want to avoid replacing the heating core because of the PITA that i hear it takes to replace it. What can I do to prevent it
You can bypass the heater core by looping the coolant lines at the firewall, enging side. Probably take you about 25 minutes give or take depending on how stuck the clamps and hoses are to the coolant lines.
This fix completely removes the heater core from the loop.
If you think it is going bad, it is too late. But like was said, there is not too much you can do to keep it from failing, unless you just bypass it. My original went out at about 110,000 miles and 6 years old. I've put in two Autozone replacements, each of which lasted about 2-3 years. It has been bypassed for about the past 5 years or so.
If you want to have heat, it is just one of those maintenance items you have to do. I did my last one in about 4 hours, I was planning to do it again when I swapped my dash, but didn't get it in time. So I'll just pull it all again this fall and do it then.