96 Grand Am SE Heater Core symptoms?

[Maris1]

I have a 96 Grand Am SE. It started running a little hot, and when I parked coolent was leaking mid engine compartment. I also noticed fan was not coming on after was warm. I ran a jumper from the fan to battery it did come on. I took to GM dealer and told him above info. There diagnosis replace heater core, gave me a estimate of $1160.00. I called part store said it was a $26.99 part. After reading the difficulty of this job I have decided to bypass heater core. Question is will this make the fan work or is that another issue? Dealer only listed heater core as the problem

[Ridenour]

Welcome to the forum. Do you mean that your blower fan (heater) wasn't coming on, or that your cooling fan (engine) wasn't coming on?

[Maris1]

Originally Posted by Ridenour

Welcome to the forum. Do you mean that your blower fan (heater) wasn't coming on, or that your cooling fan (engine) wasn't coming on?

Sorry bout that. The engine fan is not coming on,the inside blower fan works.

[vtjvt]

The heater core will not effect the cooling fan, what was the temp heating up to???? On my 96 the fan doesn't kick on till around 220 deg.

[Drova]

I got the same car and just to let u know the heater core is not hard to replace at all, hardest part is getting the pipes back on and tightening up the clamps and that aint really hard

[xeroinfinity]

not hard if you are a contortionist

[skibum1111]

Or really reallly small... Took me 5 hours to change it on my 95, and they are essentially the same process. If it wasn't for that last screw wedged in there it would have been around 3 hours and alot less glue.