I am guessing this thing is what routes water away from the heater core when you are not heating the jeep. Any idea what it is call before I go into Pep Boys and ask for a heater bypass thingy?

 

It is leaking from the bottom of the vacuum valve thing.

 

Heater control valve. It is a vacuum-controlled valve that makes coolant bypass the heater core whenever you turn your heater off. Jeep stopped using it in 97+. You can either replace it or simply delete it and run hoses directly to the firewall.

 

A lot of people will tell you to just bypass it, which is fine. But if you do want to keep it and replace the leaky valve, get a Mopar one, the cheap ones from advance are known to leak within a few months.

 

If they don't crack while you are installing them.

 

Bought a new one once. Installed it and 2 days later it was leaking. Said f it and bypassed it. Don't have towory about leaks and looks cleaner too IMO

 

what do you use to bypass it?

 

You just get rid of it and your old hoses then run new hoses directly between the firewall and the engine--just like 97+ XJ's do it.

 

Yep yep. Easy peasy

 

Get your tape measure out.......measure twice, cut once. Buy 5/8" and 3/4" heater hose from any auto parts store.

 

Also, read this thread:https://www.cherokeeforum.com/f2/hcv...204135/index4/

Summary: in '97 (along with removing the HVC) jeep also changed the routing of the hoses by switching the supply and return hoses to the heater core. I'm not sure if its a big deal or not to do the same, but if you want the flow to be factory to your '95, you will need to get adaptors that go from 3/4" to 5/8". From what I remember, the heater cores are practically the same so it shouldn't matter –somebody correct me if I'm wrong on this.

 

If I remember correctly, the heater core is not different but I will look into this more tomorrow at work if you want me to confirm that for you. I think it is only a little different flow though and doubt that there would be much issue other than possibly having more difficulty getting the air out of the core if you switched yours around.

 

I believe it's been verified, coolant flow thru the heater was reversed by the Factory on '97 and up XJs. Heaters work fine regardless which way coolant flows thru the core and bleeding air from the heater core is a non-issue.

 

That is awesome to know as most of my friends have the older models still. I am getting used to some of the newer ways as my prior one was a 94 and I am more familiar with that setup for most things

 

I just bypassed it and no issues. only thing to replace the lines it looks like one is pretty hard to access.