Hello Fello Caravaners! I love my 245K mile van but my AC no longer holds a charge. I added leak dye to the system and found a rather large leak coming from a drain tube on the firewall on the passengers side under the hood. This is a front AC only van, no rear AC.
I've read the nightmares about removing the dash but I may be willing to give it a shot. My question is, how do I know if I need a expasion valve or an evaporator? Is it common practice to replace both and get out of the dash once and for all? Any tips for someone crazy enough to try to do this type of job?
Thanks in advance, Tom.

 

Hey mowparz--http://www.scsc.k12.in.us/mahoney/vanfix/

This is a link w/ pics to show you how remove. a month ago a buddy and i removed his dash on his 97 jeep. took about 4 hrs a days for 2 days to remove and replace, (were slow and didn't push the issue) we didn't take out whole dash to get to evaporator. Take some pics along the way or write notes (we had 3 or 4 screws left over).We didn't want to take out seats and the whole dash out so,We took piece of rope and wrapped it around right side of dash, took end o rope through passenger window and tied it around roof rack. this worked as a hoist to get to havac holding the evaporator.

you can get an expansion valve for about 40.00 so replace it. on my van the evaporator is on the firewall under the hood. isn't yours located on firewall? I guess you can't identify if dye is coming from valve right? If so why don't you put expansion valve in first, because your going to put it in anyway, right?

of course once you open system, you loose your gas. it seems in my opinion, put in expansion valve, add gas and see if it gets colder. some will say you must vacuum system, that is fine if you have a vacuum or have the cash to go and get someone to vac the system after but if not--we didn't vac system, no cash, no vac owned, just put corks in lines as quick as possible or some other way to seal lines until ready to hook valve back up. his a/c is very cold, so vac system wasn't need, others will say moisture will get in and damaged parts eventually, who knows maybe 3 years from now. but i read that the new oil in the can called ice, can remove moisture in system.

thats my thoughts, i sure someone will come back and critique--thats cool

try the dash, if you have the time and don't have the cash, what do you have to lose?

scott

 

Thanks for your time on your reply Scott. I will ponder on this and make sure I know what I'm doing before I start. I will replace both items as you mentioned reguardless of their location. I'm sure I'll plug the lines up like you did and do a Harry Home Owner Recharge on the system and see what I end up with.
I'll keep you posted if I decide to do this.
Thanks, Tom.

 

It is deffinitly the evaperator that is leaking. I know the OE evaperators used to come with an expension valve on them. That was very nice. I would also recommend replacing the filter / drier too, they are kind of a pain but that is up to you. For good laughs, call your dealer and get a price for a filter, I think they are between 3 and 4 hundred dollars.......lol. I have posted the dash removal proceedure from the service manual on this forum somewhere, probably more than once. It is acutally not that bad to do, granted I have done hundreds of these but back in the day I could put an evaperator in one of those vans in around an hour. If you have an open weekend I should be no problem. And I deffinitly recommend removing the front seats, makes it soooo much easier.