heater core replacement 04 Jeep GC

My GF AC evaporator core in her 04 Jeep Grand Cherokee went out. Apparently you have to remove the entire dash and interior in order to get to it.

I told her to go ahead and replace the heater core as it is right there, and the part is not that much.

The mechanic and the parts guy we trust says, the factory heater core is better than the aftermarket ones and not to replace it.

Are the aftermarket heater cores junk? and we should run with the 15 year old orig, or replace it with a new aftermarket one?

Oddly enough the mechanic said to NOT get a factory evaporator as those are junk (and the aftermarket ones are better), but he appears to have the opposite opinion on the heater core?

This is approaching a $1k job, so don't want to do it twice to replace the heater core later....

Anyone have any thoughts?

The aftermarket cores are not as good as the factory ones.I can understand wanting to replace it as you will have the heater box out.What is the difference in price from the factory core to the aftermarket? At work,I allways push for the factory stuff as it is usually better but sometimes the cost prohibits that.

I don't know what the factory heater core costs; he recommended leaving the old one in. oddly enough he recommended NOT getting the factory evaporator as for some reason he thinks the aftermarket ones are better.

Kind of confused?

Sometimes the o.e. stuff had problems and the aftermarket parts will be redesigned to correct that but not allways.I would price the o.e. heater core and decide from there.I've never put a heater core in one of those vehicles but that doesn't mean it won't ever fail.

Go buy the factory mopar one and hand it to them and then tell them to install it.

I haven't done one in several years now. But I had really good luck with Mopars value line of heater / ac cores .

They were priced competitively with the aftermarket cores

But either way, I would do both while it was apart

Installed lots of after market cores and evaps at the shop.Never had a problem with them.Typically we only used factory when customer asked for it.On those like mini vans Durangos etc we always replcade both unless customer didnt want it.Then there was no warranty on the old stuff not going bad.Kind of like changing a water pump when you change a timing belt.We typicall used NAPA or Advance cores.Rocky

When I did the evaporator in my Durango, I also replaced the heater core with an aftermarket and it only lasted a couple of years. I did paint the evaporator as it looked like the pin holes that developed because of the water and raw aluminum. Check to see how the blower motor is mounted. On my '98 Durango you had to remove the heater core box to replace it which I again had to remove the dash. I started getting good at removing the dash in that vehicle.

The aftermarket heater cores on the Ram were problematic from what I was reading. Don`t know about the Jeep.