AC compressor and evap

[Clemens]

After years of refilling the AC in May and getting through the AC season that way, this year I ran out of freon this morning.
First of all, I hate ruining our atmosphere. secondly, I don't wanna recharge twice.
2 shops told me ot's the compressor, based on the fact that they see dye marks they put into the freon when recharging. I don't see any dye under the dasboard. The vacum test they perform before refilling says that the system is fine.
The receiver dryer was replaced 8 or 9 years ago, the rest is from 1996.
After parking my R for a year while preparing the manual swap, the AC smells quite moldy after sitting for a few days. It never did that before.

I think I'm up for a evaporator replacement as well as a new compressor.
Are there still good known sources for these 2 parts around? I'd hate to put all this money and work into the project and not have a good AC system afterwards.

Skandix still has a Volvo evap for a whopping 500 and only a noname compressor for 200 Euro. I guess the Evap is worth the price because of the hassle of getting there.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

[scot850]

The evap is worth paying for. To put it in perspective, the original has lasted this long. One more will hopefully last longer. Also depending on when you installed the cabin filter mode from a V/C/S 70 the new one could last longer.

Pilling the dash is not as bad as it is made out. Getting the evaporator disconnected is the challenge. Spray the joints by the firewall with penetrant in advance of doing this job as the spring wires that hold the pipes together can get rusted and not want to play. Installing a new one is where I had the most 'fun'. I spent hours trying to get those connections back together but the wire springs just would not seat. After sleeping on the problem, I measured the cones on the new evaporator and found them larger than the originals. I filed and sandpapered them down to size and they then snapped together first attempt.

Doing this job also gives you a great opportunity to clean out the pipe work and that should get rid of that must smell as well. Wash it all out with bleach.

One thing you can try before doing all this. Have you ever replaced the schraeder valve by the dryer where they fill from? These dry out over time and leak. I bought new ones from Volvo and have held now for about 10 years.

Neil.

[abscate]

Pull the cabin air filter , if equipped, and inspect the evaporator for dark oily stains that show leakage. Freon leaks will carry a bit of the PAG oil which will stick dust and dirt and leave markers. If it’s from 96, I would replace it prophylactically.

You can Dremel off the evaporator from the hardlines for easy removal after you take off the bulkhead gasket. I remove the hardlines and rework all the gaskets on the bench.

The big hoses on the dryer are fun, much easier to remove the compressor suction port ( new oring) and work that big nut on the bench.

Lots of good penetrant on the m8 hardware holding the hardlines in prior to work. Use heat too, replace orings.

A refreshed functioning VOLVO HVAC makes a Cruel Summer much less trouble, trouble, trouble.

[misha]

I had evaporator raplacement job last year.
What a job!
I bought Nissens evaporator,NRF dryer and,while i'm in that area,heater core(NRF).

Two orings for heater core was ordered from Volvo(around 20€).

Total cost for parts only was around 280€ + professional ac shop review and vacuuming & filling with oil and gas was around 40€.

Evaporator and drier o rings were ok and still are so i left them alone since they are not standard like for other cars.
I just cleaned and soaked them with refrigerant oil i borrowed from ac shop... before re-connecting them.

I noticed that evaporator and drier were slightly smaller than originals...and i needed to bend a bit a high side on the evaporator.

I had a little problem also when removing the dashboard since i have aftermarket alarm system installed and wasn't able to remove dashboard easily untill i sorted that out.

3 days job for me.

After that i found the adapter for cabin air filter from s,v70 series cars and installed cabin air filter with active charcoal.

[foggydogg]

Robert just did it on his 850T5R

But...fair warning, it didn't fix it, it needed a dryer.
Plus one with Dr. Abscate - and Robert - if it gets another dryer, that's a bench job.
( Robert has almost as many P80s as I do, but my yard is bigger.)

[foggydogg]

I don't think he mentions the vendor, but he gets a lot of stuff from Swedish Car Parts, and of course FCP.
I've never done this job, but have always had good luck with Nissens.