The heater core in a 97 cougar i just bought has been bypassed. Could the problem have possibly (hopefully) been something else besides the heater core?

There are two reasons that could be the cause. The most common is that the blend door in the heater control box is non-operational and is not routing the air from the blower through the heater core. The other possibility is that the heater core is clogged and not getting coolant flow. Actually, a third (more remote) possibility is that if the car is used, a previous owner may have bypassed the heater core if it was leaking. You would have to check the heater hoses under the hood to make sure they are being routed through the firewall and not connect to each other, bypassing the heater core.

I'm guessing you have a bad heater core? To bypass this, you can disconnect hoses from the heater core. You may be able to do this from under the hood or under the car, but it may also be under the dash. IWhen you get these disconnected, you can use a piece of copper tubing or something the sameput the copper tubing into the ends of the hoses joining them together, bypassing the heater core. If it's your heater hose gon, you can cut it shorter by the leak but it is all best to replace rather than hack. Good luck with it. I hope that is what you maen't

1996 mercury cougar heater core replacement
we just bought a car with the same problem

http://members.tccoa.com/timb/Heatercore.htm

we did not have the bolt above the gas pedal
"1 on the tunnel above the gas pedal"

Low coolant will cause this issue as well. You can check the heater core by letting the engine warm up and then feel the hoses going into the heater core to see if they are hot. If they are both hot, then you have circulation to the core. Another cause, besides low coolant, could be the trap door that shunts air from the core to the vents could be stuck. If you do have to replace the core, you have to remove the dash from the car to do so.

Probably not.If you have the time try just searching Google or something and looking you may find it.Try some kind of ford forum website.

Hello heidicrebs: My name is Roger and I will answer for you. The time allowance for changing the heater core is 7.5 hrs. labor and 1.4 hrs. to evacuate and recharge the air conditioning. As for the dollar cost you will need to find out what the prevailing labor rate is at the shops in your area are. Should you need further help please just ask. Please rate the answer you received. This way I know if the answer was helpful. Thank you for using Fix Ya. Roger

If the coolant is leaking into the vehicle, I assume the passenger side, then more than likely it is the heater core. There are two possible fixes, the first, is to remove the dashboard, costly. Or, second bypass the heater core, the only problem with that is, you won't have any heat in the passenger compartment. So depending where you live that is a call of personal comfort. That should FixYa.

it may be possible that your heater core was faulty and some has by passed it. open hood and check for incoming and outgoing heater hoses into firewall(dash of car). it is also possible that the heater core is plugged, try getting your cooling system flushed

you cannot bypass this under the hood> You will have to get at it from underneath the car> If you can find an adapter that will connect the two different hose sizes together than you can do it that way> otherwise not much else you can do besides JB underwater weld and cement the cracks>

Remove both heater hoses from heater core. Connect the hoses to each other with a connector and clamps. I 'm sure you are aware you will now not have heat into the car