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[Andy B]

Picked my car up today from the A/C garage. After the refill at the end of last year/beginning of this year has escaped he re-refilled it yesterday but unfortunately couldn't find the escaping gas/dye. Obviously there's a reasonable amount of cowling etc infront of the condensor that could have hid the dye, but I'm wondering if my problem is the evaporator.
Hands up all those who have actually seen the evap! I assume that it's burried under the dash along with the heater matrix & will involve dismantling the car to componant level to remove/place it it is indeed fubar'd.
I'm still hoping that it's the condensor as that's about the easiest to get at. :-/

[albitz]

harry haynes says -remove the expansion valve,then withdraw the evaporator from the air distributor unit.
previuos section mentions removing glovebox to access the expansion valve so i presume its all up under the dash.probably not good news.  :-/

[Andy B]

harry haynes says -remove the expansion valve,then withdraw the evaporator from the air distributor unit.
previuos section mentions removing glovebox to access the expansion valve so i presume its all up under the dash.probably not good news.  :-/

Never thought Mr Haynes would even mention the evap.   I don't yet know that it is actuall the evap at fault, but as the garage hasn't found the dye under thebonnet, it does make you think!  

[markey mark]

i ahve just took one out for markg not an easy job but was easier for me just ragged the dash out of one i was stripping !! apparntly you can get it out by removing the glovebox and blower motor and a bit of pipework !!

[Andy B]

i ahve just took one out for markg not an easy job but was easier for me just ragged the dash out of one i was stripping !! apparntly you can get it out by removing the glovebox and blower motor and a bit of pipework !!

Thanks Mark. I'll take the car back for a dye search with the glove box removed for a start then.

[Matchless]

Small leaks are difficult to find with dye, you need someone with an electronic leak detector (sniffer) and a big workshop so the car can be inside in still air.
Favourite places are condenser and compressor. Most unlikely to be evaporator unless its been disturbed.

[Andy B]

.....
Favourite places are condenser and compressor. Most unlikely to be evaporator unless its been disturbed.

Thanks for that. I did suspect the condensor myself to start with, it was just that he was unable to see any leak from the condensor that I thought maybe the evaporator might worth looking at.
Now that I have gas in the system it might be worth my while to go to a bigger garage, rather than the 1 man band that gassed me up.

[MarkG]

I've had a load of bother with mine for months. Changed valves, changed condensor and drier but still losing all cooling after just 2 days. I took it to an AC specialist and he spent an hour crawling over it. Could find nothing. He'd heard of compressors becoming porous but mine was fine. Finally we spotted green dye on the leads connecting to the Lambda sensors. The evaporator is up in the dash but leaks drip down into this general area. So in the absence of anything anywhere else, we decided it had to be the evaporator. Bad news is they are £235 new

It is supposed to be a 4 to 5 hour job to take out a re-fit the evaporator. Haynes describes the job. I don't even know what one looks like so I'm looking forward to seeing the one Markey Mark has taken out of a scrapper and is sending to me.

Question for anyone who knows.....must the system be fully evacuated before attempting to remove the evaporator? What if it's not? Can you do a DIY purge of any gas remaining or must it be done by a specialist?

[Marks DTM Calib]

I have to sa that I have NEVER seen an evaporator fail so if yours has gone then a second hand one is a good option!

The hardest part of the removal is removing the securing screw for the right hand pipe assembly from the end of it.

Its also amazing just how bloody big they are!

No need to vac the system before removing any components, but, make sure there is no gas left in it (which I guess there wont be any!)

[MarkG]

Just received my 2nd hand one from Markey Mark. Its bloody massive!

[feeutfo]

my ac man said, he had a v6 in a vectra with a leak eventually found in the foil covered pipes. the pipe was leaking but it was traped in by the foil. how you get 950 mills in there i was not sure. or does the gas evaporate just leaving the die behind? just what he said,thats all. :-/

[MarkG]

saw a veccy one like that. Migs don't have all that foil stuff

[feeutfo]

 oh ok:-[,... But didnt i see one at least, running along the drivers side chasis bar. Like a corrigated gator? Or is that for something else? Anyway its probably not that like you say. Good luck with the big lump.