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Evaporator replacement/bad day

Joined
26 February 2005
Messages
693
Location
Forty-Fort Pennsylvania
I came home today to find a package from Digikey. Great ,The caps I had ordered for the climate control board . It was a beatiful day so I decided to work on the car outside with the stereo on etc. I walked into the garage to grab some tools and heard a loud thumping oscillation from the nsx . I opened the door to find the sub speaker pulsing ,what sounded like straight DC to the speaker. Great, Another amp repair.I removed the climate control board and desoldered all the electrolytic caps and replaced them. I put the system back together and ran the climate control, It worked with the exception of no AC. Great ,No freon. So In addition to having to replace my whining compressor, I'll have to order an evap tomorrow . I was very disgusted and started to pull the car into the garage only to hear a crunch . I walked to the front passenger wheel only to find my $275.00 Maui Jim sunglasses under the tire. Oh **** me anyway.
So, does anyone have any recommendations as to where I could order a new evap ? I 'd like to get it by the weekend . Its the second time I've charged it with R-12 and I've taken the blower motor off and inspected the evap and expansion valve and the whole sealed system (everything looks ok no oil etc). The other day I noticed a fine smoke like mist coming from the interior vents which leads me to believe its an evap. I've done quite a bit of refrigeration work on household appliances but not much on auto AC. Any tips about Evap replacement would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
The smoke you saw was water vapor due to low Freon. You need to locate the leak there are other places for leaks to occur. Mine was leaking at the connection to the condenser
 
How have you determined the leak is the evaporator? If it is by seeing vapor from the vent, you could be mistaken. Do a search and find the thread by Mark Basch about this. If you do not put dye in the system and determine the exact leak location you are kidding yourself. Mark explained that in the blower housing itself there are about three palces a leak can occur that are NOT the evaporator. This is way too expensive a repair to "shotgun". JMO.

HTH,
LarryB
 
dye is the only way to go. uv high intensity light is not as costly as it used to be. very much a do it your self diagnoses now. plus there is dye for just about every automotive fluid.
 
Shotgun is not the word, lighting cash afire comes to mind though. The mist you saw coming out of the vents was not freon. If you EVER see freon leaking out of a system, then it would be empty within 30 seconds of a full charge. In the southwest, we see mist out of our vents all the time, and it is a sign of a healthy system. The evap core has to get very cold very fast in order to react with the humidity and create the fog that you see. Perhaps there is a meteorologist here who can explain dew point / indoor fog better than me.

You say that you checked the evap / exp valve fittings and they are okay, as was the evap connections. If you did this just vissually, that is useless.
If you did it correctly by charging freon with dye in it, you would have seen the evap leaking with the dye. If you checked by putting a wrench on these fittings, bad idea. You can never tighten an o ring, especially an a/c o ring, once it has sealed. In the case of an older system you will actually make a good seal leak, by additional torque.

Sorry about the bad day, especially the flattened shades, but I think you should a take deep breath and organize a proper diagnosis. For me, that would be a dye install and a thorough black lite inspection. If you FIND you need an evap, I keep them in stock, but someone closer to you may, as well.

PM me if you need further diagnostic help,
MB
 
Where does one purchase dye for an R-12 system? I've checked several auto parts stores and only found it with 134 . No sense for me to convert to R134a being I have a 30lb can of R-12.
 
I would suggest using an electronic leak detector if you dont want to do the dye test. On the other hand you are sitting on gold if you have a 30lb jug of r-12, you could sell it to an a/c company and use the money to cover the costs of the repair.


Armando
 
MiamieNeSeX said:
On the other hand you are sitting on gold if you have a 30lb jug of r-12, you could sell it to an a/c company and use the money to cover the costs of the repair.


Armando

I GAVE away 3 full canisters and all required tools, vacuum pump, charging scales, gauges, etc when I closed up shop in 01. I could just about slap myself because now I can't get the stuff.
 
MiamieNeSeX said:
I would suggest using an electronic leak detector if you dont want to do the dye test. On the other hand you are sitting on gold if you have a 30lb jug of r-12, you could sell it to an a/c company and use the money to cover the costs of the repair.


Armando



exactly!!!!!!!!! seems like your making everything exceptionally hard on yourself
spend the $90 to convert it to 134 you'll buy the freon with the dye and find the leak and be thanking yourself for not pulling out the complete interior plus the evaporator is pricey even used it's around $400-. The mist coming out of the vent is common IMO especially when it is very humid.
 
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