Hello all, I am currently changing my evaporator on my 2002 Monte Carlo and I have pretty much no clue what I’m doing other than what I’ve read and seen. I am at the point where my dash is so far apart that I can freely take out my heater core if I wanted (not helpful lol) I need to replace my evaporator since I’m leaking refrigerant and it’s showing up in my vents (dye test) I can reply with pictures tomorrow but I’m just stuck as to where I need to go from here. The hvac box seems to not want to come out and there’s no more screws I can find to take out.

edit: not sure if I need to take out that long metal “brace” that spans across the whole dash? It’s behind the plastic one that also spans across the dash. I got the plastic one out but the metal one wasn’t budging even with the bolts out so I assumed I didn’t need to?

 

 

I did this job on my 2004 Monte years ago. According to the shop book, you have to remove EVERYTHING and then remove the entire HVAC module (the box in the center with all the actuators and heater and evap cores). So I did. I had it to the point I could sit in the seat and all that was infront of me was the firewall. Got it done. I would also replace the heater core while you are there.

 

I did this too and basically freeballed it. Basically exactly what the other guy did, I just left the steering column in.

To get the long metal brace out you need to take out the bolt that holds your break pedal in.(it’s a pain in the ***) it’s mounted to a bracket attached to the firewall that you can’t remove.

Another tip would be when you take apart the air box, drill through the plastic rivets, NOT the inserts, you can use self tappers on those to reseal it. If you drill through them, your air box will leak condensation onto your passenger side floorboard.