2003 V70 24T How to stop leak in AC Receiver/Drier?

bbeels · Post by **bbeels** » 07 Jun 2015, 18:14

While replacing my radiator this weekend, one of the steps said to “disconnect the connector from the receiver drier and the cable from the holder. “ When I loosened a bolt, green fluid came out under pressure. I retightened the bolt and for quite a while the fluid continued to slowly bubble out and drip.

: AC Receiver Drier seen from under car.

Did I wreck something? I’m not really sure if I got the bolt tight enough, as it was now slippery with fluid. I did go back to it and tweak it some after the dripping stopped, but could revisit the area. I probably should. I just don’t want to over tighten.

I expect that if nothing else, I will need to recharge the AC system. Is the reason that the bubbling stopped that the pressure is low? The AC system has been iffy in hot weather in the past and today it’s in the 90’s so I’m not sure if I caused a lack of functionality or if it wouldn’t be working today anyway.

Below are images of the area. I’m not sure why the fluid is by the little tube that goes up, that’s not where the bolt was. The bolt is on the side on the unit.

I’ve attached the pdf that I used, the Reference is on page 2. I had skipped it while taking the Radiator out, and thought it might make it easier when putting it back in.

Can anyone advise?

Thank you for any input.

V70 turbo radiator 2.pdf: replacing radiator / CAC pdf; (291.95 KiB) Downloaded 336 times

: AC Receiver Drier location.; AC Receiver Drier 2003C.jpg (65.5 KiB) Viewed 2499 times

: AC Receiver Drier from above.

Post by **Vovo_merz** » 07 Jun 2015, 18:26

Hoping you did not mass anything up by trying to screw it back in under pressure but it will never tighten up properly, so my suggestion is drain your freon from the system and loosen that same bolt separate the tube check to make sure yellow seal is in tact then reconnect and tighten it back up, fill one small bottle of freon and inspect the area if its leaking, if not you all set just fill to proper level/ pressure and you good to go if not you have damaged it by trying to tighten it back up under really strong pressure.
Let us know if you get it fixed please

bbeels · Post by **bbeels** » 07 Jun 2015, 19:45

Should I loosen that bolt to drain the freon, or is there a standard way that you know of? I did locate the low pressure port, on this car it's visible below the steering fluid reservoir. Perhaps there is a way to drain it from there.
So, once it's drained, and I inspect the yellow seal, if I find that it need replacing, do you know if it is a replaceable part? I think that I was gentle enough not to have damaged it, as I only opened it a little and reversed when it spewed.
Thanks for the quick response, I'd like to get everything back in shape asap.

Post by **Vovo_merz** » 08 Jun 2015, 07:09

First press on that pressure port and see if there is anything left in the system, I would not suggest trying to drain it through there as it will require standing next to it to hold it open and if you inhale freon, you will have hard time breathing and i'm sure its not healthy, so I would just unscrew that same bolt and just let everything out through there, as for the yellow seal they its really small and replaceable.
Good Luck

Post by **abscate** » 08 Jun 2015, 07:11

How long was it open( bolt loosened)??

Freon evaporates pretty quickly but if you tightened it when it sputtered it should be ok. A few minutes of bubbling is probably just residual freon evaporating off. If it bubbled for 60 minutes, it probably leaked out and my guess is the oring seal got messed up.

Oring said are cheap...couple of bucks.

You do need to have your AC evacuated, not just a can of refrigerant. Moisture will corrode your system leading to expensive repairs.

That green stuff looks like dye someone added to your system, btw. It probably means it had a leak. If you like AC, get it fixed right and enjoy it. You need to invest in about 150-200 in tools to get this done right...AZc manifold gauges, vacuum pump.

If you can live without it, try a can with sealant and take the " nothing to lose approach" you could get a year or two before the compressor seizes, maybe more, maybe less.

The seal in that joint is between the two flat blocks of metal. Each side is grooved to accept an oring. The bolt squeezes the blocks together to make the seal

AC refrigerant is liquid under high pressure, gas at atmospheric pressure. You don't drain It, you crack the system open and it goes FOooooSH!.....up into the atmosphere where it fubars the ozone andCO2 chemistry and kills us all. Ok, that was a bit hyperbolic if not hyperbaric.

bbeels · Post by **bbeels** » 08 Jun 2015, 10:14

It was bubbling for at least 30 minutes. I was putting the radiator back in and by the time I got it up and mounted it had stopped. I had immediately retightened it, but didn't go back to check how tight I got it. I have the car back up on the ramps this morning to revisit the area sometime today. the drip was annoying as I didn't really want it to hit me and I kept having to reach in the path. I put a shop cloth on it to contain it. All in all, there wasn't more than 4 or 5 tablespoons of liquid that came out.

Post by **abscate** » 08 Jun 2015, 10:17

Im going to guess if you fire up your AC you won't get any cold. If you get it evacuated right away, and recharged, you can save some bucks on the EVAP drier..that is, not replacing it. Volvo says 24 hours in Alldata - if it isn't too humid you can probably stretch that to a few days.

bbeels · Post by **bbeels** » 08 Jun 2015, 10:26

This morning I did turn on the AC and it did feel cool, but it was about 65' so it may have just been the night air that was moving. It's getting to 70' outside now, and it's not that humid. I will get it done today if at all possible.

Post by **abscate** » 08 Jun 2015, 14:37

The line going into the firewall should get cold enough to condense water on it - it should feel freezing cold. If that isn't happening, there is no charge left. If you really low on charge, the low pressure switch will prevent the compressor from coming on, so thats another marker of low charge. A few days is ok. There is probably some residual pressure keeping moisture out.

bbeels · Post by **bbeels** » 09 Jun 2015, 14:10

I went to NAPA to see if they might have an O ring. They said they’d need to see the O ring. They suggested that I tighten the bolt and then put some charge in the system to see if it leaks.

I figured that if nothing else, it would keep the system active and buy me some time till the weekend when I can devote more time.

I bought AC Pro, so that I would have a gauge and the replacement 134a to try charging it up.

By the time I got back and ready to try checking the system, it was about 85’ and would be hotter soon. I tightened the bolt, but it didn’t feel like it was particularly solid. The gauge showed weak, so I did put some pressure back into the system and there was a little bit of ooze below the bolt. Certainly not like the other day, just a touch. I added the rest of the bottle and the gauge was still below the 25 psi mark, where the green would begin. Off to NAPA again for some more 134a and I was able to get the gauge up to about 40 or 45 psi. The air was blowing cold and maybe this would work.

During the day, the A/C seemed iffy, but I wasn’t sure if it was just recycling normally. The outside temperature gauge in the dash was saying 106, which I knew was wrong, but parts of our town did get to up to 102 according to Wundermap and 97 according to the evening news recap.

Last night, the weather had cooled quite a bit and we did drive a couple of miles. On this trip the air seemed to be blowing cold.

This morning, I hooked up the gauge from the AC Pro and didn’t get much of a reading. I added a bit of pressure and am hoping to keep it going till I can dig deeper.

If the bolt was really not tightening, I hope I didn’t strip it. (Well I hope I only stripped the bolt and not the unit.) I plan to check with Volvo to see if they know what O ring might be needed and yo find out about my options if I stripped the hole that the bolt goes in.

It looks like the part for the Receiver Drier is fairly inexpensive. If I can swap this one out myself and get the system back up and running, that would be the preference, but if this is a “shop only” service, I will go that route.

Any thoughts?