Seems to be the season for aircon issues...
I replaced the condenser and dryer on mine last year - noticed green dribble around the trinary switch on the dryer housing... typical. Still need to order a replacement trinary switch - but no doubt I'll need to get it re-gassed or topped up at the very least. It passed a nitrogen test aswell when I got it re-gassed last year too!
Britpart condenser arrived yesterday so been out there and fitted it this evening. Looks surprisingly good but didn't come with O rings so it's a good job I ordered them too. All the bolt holes lined up although I did have to enlarge the holes at the bottom slightly for a locating peg to fit in. Cheated a bit as RAVE says to remove the front bumper but I suspect the bolts holding mine will shear long before they come out. A long 3/8 drive extension can be passed through the grille in the lower bumper to undo the bottom bolts and the fans can be unbolted once it's lifted part way out. Bottom pipe came out easily enough with a crows foot spanner but the top one was well chewed from where someone had been in there before and needed a pair of Stilsons to get that off. Hopefully, I've done them up tight enough (RAVE says do them up to 11 ft/lbs but I don't have an open ended torque wrench) but not too tight that I can still get them off when I need to return it under the 2 year warranty. Old one was leaking in at least 3 places from the green goop.
Now just got to get it pressure tested and regassed which probably won't be until Saturday morning (unless I can skive off from work early one day before then.....).
Not trying to change the subject but if I'm allowed to digress from P38s a bit... I recently bought a Nissan Elgrand people carrier which has 2 AC evaporators (one in the front and one in the back). AC wasn't working, didn't have time to take it for a proper regas so I tried the Halfords kit. It worked at first but then the missus could hear a hissing from the back end and it stopped working - hissing coming form the corroded front to rear AC pipe on a bend near the rear. Normally I'd probably try cutting the corroded bit out and replacing with some compatible high pressure flexible pipe (like I once did on a Pug306) but this pipe has another pipe running inside it. A new pipe is over £1000 and special order from Japan so bugger that! I need to either find a replacement pipe in a scrappers or fix this pipe.. Anyone good at aluminium pipe welding?
Sounds like a discussion worthy of a thread of its own! :-)
I can now report that a Britpart condenser doesn't leak when new. System was leak tested and re-gassed last week and it's still working. How long for is anyone's guess but you never know, there's no moving parts, so it might be OK.
Lpgc wrote:
Not trying to change the subject but if I'm allowed to digress from P38s a bit... I recently bought a Nissan Elgrand people carrier which has 2 AC evaporators (one in the front and one in the back). AC wasn't working, didn't have time to take it for a proper regas so I tried the Halfords kit. It worked at first but then the missus could hear a hissing from the back end and it stopped working - hissing coming form the corroded front to rear AC pipe on a bend near the rear. Normally I'd probably try cutting the corroded bit out and replacing with some compatible high pressure flexible pipe (like I once did on a Pug306) but this pipe has another pipe running inside it. A new pipe is over £1000 and special order from Japan so bugger that! I need to either find a replacement pipe in a scrappers or fix this pipe.. Anyone good at aluminium pipe welding?
Aluminium pressure vessel welding is quite a rare coding, I'd suspect! What happens at the ends of the pipe?
From what I've read this sounds like a nasty setup... presumably has a special fitting at either end, so you couldn't just find some compatible pipe ends that go onto the evaporator and make up custom pipes to replace the lot.
The front of the single pipe is a terminating block under the transmission tunnel, the single pipe splits into 2 pipes within this block, the 2 pipes then run forward to the usual 2 pipe AC stuff under the bonnet. I haven't had a look at the rear evaporator yet, it may be that there's some sort of single pipe to 2 pipe adaptor before the evaporator unit or it may be that the evaporator unit is connected directly to the single pipe.
Might be possible to remove the single pipe and just weld the affected area... but the last time I tried aluminium welding myself was using a mig on a Vauxhall Senator's heater pipe and it didn't go so well! If I were to do it again I'd practice first on a bit of AC pipe removed from a scrap vehicle. Wonder if they are aluminium or an aluminium alloy though.