Yes, the A/C evaporator has to be removed. She found a friend of a friend to do it for $300 labor. He didn't refill the freon, so that's probably another $100, and fixing some of the problems he caused took me a couple of days. I still think she should have set the car on fire. By the way, there's a...

It turned out to be the throttle plate sticking in the throttle body. I kludged in a thin washer pounded out of a loop of wire around the throttle plate shaft to act as a spacer and keep the throttle plate centered in the throttle body thereby allowing it to close without rubbing against the inside ...

After fighting, and losing, with the heater core (http://forums.genvibe.com/zerothread?id=43400) I wasn't in much of a mood to try much. I did clean the PCV valve and I thought it made a small improvement, but it was short lived. It was pretty bad so the hose connected to it is probably pretty gunke...

Well after about 8 hours of disassembling everything from the firewall back, I could barely glimpse the side of the heater core. As far as I can tell, the A/C evaporator has to be removed to get to it. Even if I wanted to do that, which I don't, I couldn't even see a way to disconnect it.Until this,...

I'm going to tackle replacing the heater core on my friend's 2003 Vibe GT probably on Monday. I couldn't find any relevant posts here, so I'm wondering if anyone has any tips or advice.Thanks!-JT

I'd love to take you up on the offer, but it's a little far from Reno to Ottawa. Seeing as how it's now my ex-girlfriend's car, I don't want to put too much effort into it. I'll try the simple stuff and see how it goes.-JT

Thanks! I did try cleaning all the throttle linkages and making sure nothing was sticking or binding. It's never shown a check engine light. I'll try cleaning the throttle body and change the PCV valve and report back.-JT

I did a search and couldn't find much. My friend's 2003 Vibe GT will usually, but not always, rev up to 3000 RPM when you push in the clutch well after the car has warmed up. If you mash on the accelerator, it will go back to idling at about 1000 RPM. She does little to no maintenance on it other th...

Maybe he's referring to the serpentine belt? I didn't see anything in the owner's manual about when that should be changed.-JT

I'll have to remember that sand and grease trick. It may have saved me the 20 bucks I spent on the bolt extractors.-JT

It worked! I've taken out a lot of tough bolts in my day, but that was by far the toughest I've ever tackled. To anyone out there wondering if those bolt extractors work, I can say emphatically, yes!I still don't know what the problem was. It doesn't appear bent or rusted at all. Maybe the guy at th...

I'm trying to get to the head gasket. The belt tensioner has to come off to get the timing chain cover off. Given all the trouble I've had so far, I'd be willing to bet the head gasket isn't the real problem and it's something much more severe (like a cracked block).I don't know what the problem is ...

Thanks for the links! I found plenty of posts on this forum from people that replaced their belt tensioner, but none of them seem to have had the trouble that I'm having. I love the second link where he says, "8) Remove the 17mm bolt that hold the tensioner assy onto the block." I've been ...

Is there some trick to getting the #@$!ing bolt out of the center of the belt tensioner to take it off? I've tried an 18" breaker bar with a 18" pipe on the end of it and that bolt won't budge. I'm either going to round off the head of the bolt or break it if I keep at it. Am I missing som...

It's losing water and it overheated on her last week. Just looking at the dipstick, it's pretty obvious that water is getting into the oil. It's a 2003 and I doubt she's ever had the antifreeze changed or even checked for that matter. Looking at the back of the engine (as much as I can get any sort ...

Thanks for the quick response. I don't think my girlfriend's car can wait for spring. I may just have to give it a go and hope for the best. I'll report back if I do.-JT

Hi all! I don't have a Vibe, but my girlfriend does (2003). Recently it's started to lose coolant and I'm pretty sure it's a head gasket issue (hopefully, it's not something worse). Anyone here have any experience replacing a head gasket (2ZZ engine, I think)? I've done plenty of engine work in my t...

magickarle, you still around? How'd you make out?