Wednesday, December 01, 2010 - 05:36 pm, by: Prashant Mohinda(Symptom)
hey as most of you did i have no air con at the moment i have replaced my compressor and condenser and i just need to do the evaporator except toyota cant get one from japan or aus. apparently i have 2 options, either get a second hand evap which might be on its way out. i was told that a prado evap is roughly the same size ? is this a viable path or should i just give up and remove my air con al together ??
Thursday, December 02, 2010 - 04:57 pm, by: Boris Siljanoski(Z2tt)
If the gas is escaping in 5 minutes, you most likely have a huge leak at a hose/pipe connection, if your system has a UV Dye you can use a UV Light to detect leaks, if the leak is not anywhere to be seen in the engine bay, it can be the TXV fittings near the evaporator.
Once you take the evaporator out, you will probably see a huge pool of oil around the Thermal Expansion valve, in this case that is your leak and it can be as simple as replacing o-rings.
Thursday, December 02, 2010 - 06:13 pm, by: Prashant Mohinda(Symptom)
oh really it sounds pretty easy then, i dont know too much about air con but the 'air con guy' said all i need is a new evaporator so maybe i should get someone else to look at it ?
Thursday, December 02, 2010 - 07:07 pm, by: Boris Siljanoski(Z2tt)
There is no way the "Air Con guy" who said you need a new evaporator has anyway of knowing whether the leak is coming from your evaporator core or an O-ring on the TXV Connections (Which are near the evaporator).
Remember it is a long job as in the Z30 Soarers it requires the removal of the entire dash. Either way you will have to get the evaporator housing out as the leak is somewhere from there.
Make sure the system does not have any gas in first. remove the 2 pipe connections at the firewall, and also undo the small copper tube from the low side pipe that comes out of the firewall.
Now remove the dash and do whatever needed to remove the evaporator. Most places will want about $1500 in Labour for this. If you want to go ahead with it, it does help to take pictures and use sticky tape and a piece of paper to place your screws on and label them.
Once you get the evaporator out, take the plastic housing off and inspect it. The leak spot should be very obvious, if there is a huge amount of oil near the TXV Valve, it was probably coming from there.
If you can find a good A/C Place, take the evaporator to them and ask them to pressure test it, and not to use anymore than 130 PSI. They should only charge you about $20 for this. If it is established that the evaporator is ok, then it is just your O-Rings on expansion valve.
It is also a good idea to replace the expansion valve with a new one...... however finding a new one may be difficult, Nippon Air Spares or Ashdown/Ingram are your best bet.
So if your not confident in removing the dash, it's better to find somebody who can do it for you but that's the risk of letting other people work on your car.
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