AcuraBro
SH Member
Registered: May 2001
Location: Centennial, CO
Posts: 60 |
My A/C project...
Alright, first let me start off that when I first got the car I knew nothing about it. All I knew is that I wanted to install my new intake, clear bumpers, and my system. Well, I was young and foolish and couldn't get the cap off of the wiring on the firewall, so ok, find a new opening or make your own opening, right? There's a nice opening in the metal backed by felt just to the right of the battery, lets stick a knife thru there and see if it comes out on the other side... ok, do it up... : sssshhhhhhhhh:: Uh oh, what's that? Oh crap, the knife is really cold. Pull it out quick! ::PSHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Well, there's a nice puddle of jellied refridgerant on the floor of my friend's garage now, and a heavy gas on the inside of the car. This discharged the whole system. After that happend, I removed the A/C compressor to have less parasitic drag on the engine, because of the ignorance that the leak would be expensive to fix.
Well, nearly 3 years later, I spun a bering, which broke a rod and put a hole in the block, so with the engine out, I decide to completely re-vamp the car, and since I'll be taking a trip out to socal this summer, and today's high temp here in Denver 101, I think I need A/C to get there thru everyday summer and the desert. I take a look in my ghet-oh haynes manual, and find out how to find these mysterious A/C parts inside my firewall. As it turns out, the evaporator is located between the glove box and the battery. First step? Remove both halfs of the evaporator, which is in 2 parts: half black, half white. It was a lot easier with my engine out (not so much) and my seats out (especially the passenger one). The Evaporator box was held down by about 10 different screws and bolts, 1 of which was impossible to reach w/o a 10mm long socket and a long 3/8 drive extension. Then you have to split the evaporator into two to take it out of the dash.
It turns out, the knife penitrated the evaporator core. The Evaporator works much like a radiator in the fact that the refridgerant takes the place of the coolant/anti-freze, and the air thru the front grille is replaced with the air from your heater/AC blower. When I opened up the black casing of the core half of the evaporator, there was a bunch of debris in the form of leaves, stems, and other crap that falls onto cars, which as I found out, made the air coming out of my vents smell pretty foul. It's like having a compost pile inside your car. But the best part was when I took it into Mile High Acura, I got leaves all over their parts counter. After finding out that that evaporator core will cost me $192.00.
That was that, so now the evaporator is on order, and I know that all 24oz of R134a are gone. Now that I've taken everything apart on the system, I can tell you where to look for leaks. First, there are 2 R134 A lines that runn under your intake, under your battery, and connect to the evaporator behind the battery on the firewall. Look there. Another place is behind your left headlight. There's a flat aluminum plate w/ 2 aluminum lines downdrafting into it. Look there. Then look down in front of the engine on the compressor, and also on the H and L valves.
Well don't know what else to add, that's my experience w/ the A/C, I'm going to have to recharge soon, the part should be in next Friday.
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THe ultimate hybrid: LS/VTEC, Civic Type R pistons (CR 13.5:1), Civic Type R LSD Tranny
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06-25-2001 12:56 AM
condenser fan and compressor