Aircon question

[BillC]

On the weekend I was in my mates ute when the aircon stopped working. Literally working one minute then stopped. If you turn it off for 5 minutes it works again ? I talked him into going to an aircon guy I know and he said it was the condensor. The radiator thing that sits behind the dash just after the fan. He said that it was blocked probably by the fluff from his sheepskin seat covers. He said that because the air was not flowing through the condensor freely it was freezing up and stopping the coolent gas from flowing through it (or something like that). This has happened to me in the past in my ED and I tried to get to it to clean it but gave it up as too difficult. My question is how do you get to this condensor that gets blocked so you can clean it ? Has anybody done it. The aircon guy wants $550 to replace the condensor..

[whiskers]

I have the same prob mate and have done so for the past 18 months or more, $550 seems a good price to have it done as they have to take the whole dash out to get it most probably a full days work. I was quoted about $700 odd back then and it has put me off doing it. you can do a clean that will fix it for a short period of time.
you have to take out the glove box and up behind there, to the right you will find a panel with a couple of screws and a wire on the outside you need to take this panel off and then with an blower attachment from an air compressor you need to blow out the vanes. you will be surprised of the amount of crap that comes out of there. pm me if you need a bit more info on where it is if you cant find it.
hope this helps you out.

Whiskers

edit: you have to take of the controller just in front

[bingoTE50]

guys it is called a evaporator... You have to pull the lower dash apart I reckon to get at it. Get a second opinion , if the aircon was gradually getting less efficient yeah maybe a blocked evaporator. Make sure they put their service gauges on the system to check the running pressures . The system could have gone out on either low pressure control or high pressure control.
Does not hurt to get a second opinion ...

[Peuty]

Yep, condensor is at the front of the car in front of the radiator.

Get a second opinion.

[BillC]

Your right. He did say evaporator. I just couldn't remember. As you say BingoTE50, it does get less efficient as you drive. Whiskers, I have tried the panel that you suggested in the ED but I recall it was only about 3 cm X 5 cm and very difficult to anything with due to its size. I will try it on the AU and see if its any different.

[whiskers]

yeah billc it is a small area to get to but I did find that if it was blown through with the air compressor it helped things out a lot the air has to be blown between the vanes and at a fairly good pressure too, I tried to do it again with my sons compressor but I think it was a bit small for the job. this was done for me ages ago by a air con bloke after the old girl came back from the panel beaters after she was stolen.
good luck with it all, let me know if you do anything with it and if it was hard to do as I said I have been dancing around this for a long time now.

[JOSH]

to get the evaporater out the whole dash needs to be removed

[Eu-GenixX]

yes.. dash needs to come out to get to the evaporator...

that would be the last thing i'd check... check for leaks.. and gas levels... does the pipe after the orifice tube freeze up? mine did that when it was low on gas..

it would work.. then you could feel it not working. then it would stop.. coz of the gradual gas leak... get a second opinion for sure... i think ute and sedan systems are different tho...

[BillC]

When its working it seems to work fine. But the aircon guy said that the amount of air coming out of the vents indicated reduced airflow. When it stops working you turn the aircon off for 5 minutes and restart it it works fine again for 20minutes to half an hour then slowly stops working again. Its been doing this for 6 months now. If it was a leak I would have expected it to have all leaked out by now. If it was low gas level why would it work sometimes and not others ? I would expect less performance all the time if it was low on gas. Not good then nothing then good again ?

[bingoTE50]

Check and make sure the condensate drain is not blocked.Is there water on the ground when you park it after running the aircon. This can also cause the evap to ice up .There is a small rubber tube about 6-8mm should be hanging down underneath the car that the condensate (water ) drains out.Sometimes they become blocked with dust and water ( mud) or even algae. You can poke some stiff wire in there gently to clear it.
Again , someone needs to put service gauges on it to test the refrigerant level.

[BillC]

Thanks for that. Yes, water is under the car so I guess the drain is not blocked. I will try what Whiskers suggests first because the bloke who owns the car is only a second year apprentice and dosn't have a lot of money. With a bit of luck this may help him till he can afford to get it fixed properly. Thanks for all the help.