850 AC Condenser's connector bolt (stripped) removal

lcc014 · Post by **lcc014** » 03 Apr 2021, 19:34

My car hit a rusty tire in the middle of the road in early morning. Condenser was bent towards to the engine, radiator too but not too bad, no coolant leak. I am going to replace both. I had no problem to remove the radiator (been doing this 3 times already) but no luck to remove the hex (6mm) bolt of the condenser hose connectors. The bolt was so tight (25 years old, original) and I stripped it after using PB Blaster for 30 minutes. I saw posts in this forum related to the removal of AC hose. Those posts showed this bolt was easy to undo but not in my case.

What is the best way to remove this hose connector (stripped hex bolt) ? I want to keep the 2 existing AC hoses.

Thanks,

Ching-Ho Cheng

Post by **abscate** » 04 Apr 2021, 03:09

Do you have enough clearance to get a Dremel in there and take the head off? It’s just a straight bolt, and if you ding up the surface of the hose mounts bit that won’t matter.

Do preserve those hoses as they aren’t cheap. If you can wait a bit for AC I’ll be starting my Boston runs again in Spring and can get it done.

30 seconds of propane heat on the head will also help loosen it up since you are replacing the condensor, no damage risk

Big vice grip on the head ?

lcc014 · Post by **lcc014** » 04 Apr 2021, 05:09

abscate wrote: ↑04 Apr 2021, 03:09 Do you have enough clearance to get a Dremel in there and take the head off? It’s just a straight bolt, and if you ding up the surface of the hose mounts bit that won’t matter.

Do preserve those hoses as they aren’t cheap. If you can wait a bit for AC I’ll be starting my Boston runs again in Spring and can get it done.

30 seconds of propane heat on the head will also help loosen it up since you are replacing the condensor, no damage risk

Big vice grip on the head ?

Thank you for the prompt response. I did try to use a vice grip to grep the bolt head and then hit the vice grip with 3 lb hammer, no luck. The vice grip just turned and rounded the head. I have Dremel tool and there is enough room to cut the head off by jacking up the car. I will do that, thank you

Thanks,

Ching-Ho Cheng

Post by **abscate** » 04 Apr 2021, 05:38

If your AC held charge you can also reuse your dryer and save the wire of replacing it. Volvo let’s you have 24 hours of open system. It’s pretty dry right now I the Northeast so that also helps.

You will void your warranty on the condensor, but they don’t honor those warranty’s, anyway, unless it’s FCP.

( shameless plug)

lcc014 · Post by **lcc014** » 05 Apr 2021, 19:38

abscate wrote: ↑04 Apr 2021, 05:38 If your AC held charge you can also reuse your dryer and save the wire of replacing it. Volvo let’s you have 24 hours of open system. It’s pretty dry right now I the Northeast so that also helps.

You will void your warranty on the condensor, but they don’t honor those warranty’s, anyway, unless it’s FCP.

( shameless plug)

Thank you for the information. My AC did not work since early 2020. Volvo garage recharged it and R134 leaked so fast. Volvo garage suspected evaporator as they already replaced the dryer about 1 year ago. Dryer had been replaced twice before by Volvo garages and the evaporator + dryer were replaced by Volvo dealer when car still under warranty. So the system had no charge for about 1 year. Due to the Pandemics, I did not use my Volvo much in the summer time. So no AC was fine. I will have the Volvo garage to replace the evaporator later this spring and expected dryer will be replaced at the same time as it must be full of water by now.

It took me about 1 hour to cut the bolt head off and cut into the bolt (a little bit behind the connector). This was because only cutting the bolt head off did not work. Maybe my cut wasn't straight enough. After these 2 cuts, I then wiggled the hose many times and it started to come loose. Finally, it came apart. I will do the passenger side bolt head next.

Do you know the torque spec. of the AC hose connector bolt ? I could not find it anywhere.

Regarding to the warranty, did you mean that let the AC hose disconnect from condenser for longer than 24 hours will void the condenser part warranty ? I bought the condenser from eeuroparts.com today. BTW, do you know how to upload pictures to a post ?

Thanks,

Ching-Ho Cheng

Post by **abscate** » 06 Apr 2021, 02:59

Congrats on bolt 1! Dremel are great tools!

Most parts places won’t warranty AC parts unless you replace the drier at the time of service. They also will say “ qualified person” must install, so the DIY mechanic might not get warranty. The tools to do An AC charge your self cost about $200 so for one car and a “once every five year “ job it makes sense for a shop to do this task of evacuating, evaluating seal, and charging the AC system

Use new orings on any part you remove. All the sizes are documented here in a big thread on AC orings

Use Tightening torque 25 ±6 Nm (19 ±4 ft.lb) for The 6mm hex bolts on the condensor. The torque isn’t critical here.

For pictures...go to Full editor mode ( blue button below post window) , then click attachments, Add, select photo, wait for it to load , then submit.

If you position the cursor and then use the “Inline “ button you can control where the photo shows, otherwise, it Just adds to the end.

This tutorial has oring sizes on page 8, thanks to Jimbee for writing this up in 2017

https://s3.amazonaws.com/images.matthewsvolvosite.com/vo ... torial.pdf

lcc014 · Post by **lcc014** » 06 Apr 2021, 09:55

Thank you for the detail information about the warranty, link to the document about AC O-rings and hose bolt torque spec.. That is very useful. Since my car's AC did not work for a long time, do I still need to plug the AC hose opening after disconnecting the hose from condenser ?

Here is the pictures of the driver side AC hose and the condenser bolt (cut).

Thanks,

Ching-Ho Cheng

Post by **abscate** » 06 Apr 2021, 20:00

Nicely done. If the top surface of the condensor hose got roughed up by the Dremel work just file it smooth.

The oring seal looks perfect.

If the AC has been dead for a while , just pump it down with a vacuum pump for a few hours and install a new drier. The Rein brand Is fine and very reasonable, under $20

lcc014 · Post by **lcc014** » 07 Apr 2021, 19:43

I did the passenger side today and was much easier. I used the right angle attachment in the dremel tool. Just one cut to the bolt head and connector came apart immediately. The O-ring was in much better shape than the driver side.

I will double check the top surface of both connectors and file them if needed. I don't have a vacuum pump, so I will let the Volvo garage to do it along with the evaporator replacement. Thank you for all the help. My 400k miles 850 NA will continue to run...

Thanks,

Ching-Ho Cheng

Post by **abscate** » 08 Apr 2021, 01:44

Ouch! That’s a dead condensor

Can you get the drier off ok? The big nut is almost impossible on the car, but you can release the fat suction hose at the compressor , the disconnect the supply line ( you need a small ac line release tool for that, about $10) remove 10mm clamp screw then pull it out.

On the bench, the big nut is easy