I will look into the rear unit, I have heard that is where most of the leaks are. I should be able to see some oil leaking from that area, or should I add a can of freon with dye in it? I still would like to change the expansion valve, and drier. Thanks.

 

There are a couple of places in the same area they leak, the liquid line (smaller one) will crack where they crimp it to hold the o-ring. The extension tubes will rot through right above the rectangle block. corrosion will build up between the junction and push the two pieces apart. Nice setup, must be why they only used it the one year. If you put Freon in it, run it and don't physically see the leak, fully charge the system and add leak detection dye. Then see how it works, no use putting a valve in if it works.

 

I looked under the rear unit and did not see any oil, did not add dye. The rear air is still cold and front warm air. My plan is to replace the front expansion valve and the drier. I think the rear is OK.

 

Sorry to jump in on this, but I am having an issue and you said something VERY interesting for me!

The liquid line will crack at the crimp for the O-ring? You mean the flare/flange on the pipe?

I found oil trailing down from the top side of the block at the bottom of the extension tubes so I ordered new ones and replaced them. After a recharge I found it leaked between the underbody lines and extension tubes. I changed the O-rings for different ones (since I bought a "complete" kit for the van I assumed I had fitted the wrong O-rings) and recharged, still leaking. I took it to a dealership for them to diagnose, they told me I still had the wrong O-rings (which means I had it right the first time as there were only 2 O-rings that were even close), swapped in another set at my cost and recharged, still leaking. They told me the extension tubes I bought must be incorrectly made and changed them at my cost, still leaking. Now they are telling me there must be microscopic cracks in the liquid line. After spending $1050 diagnosing and not repairing the problem then quoting $1800 to replace the underbody lines I took the van home and ordered a set to replace them myself but I remained in disbelief that it could really be the issue.

Do the lines actually crack there? I am so surprised to hear that but it gives me hope that I will actually be able to get this problem solved for good

(mine is a stow n go 2005 model)

 

Wow zero 10. No problem jumping in. I have not added dye to the system yet, been tight on money. I do have the manifold set, and vaccum pump. So if you read this thread which is getting long.My front air is warm and rear cold. The rear is still cold with only 12oz. added,haven't looked for a leak. The cost for the dealer to do this is not cheap.

 

Zero, yep, the crimp right below the oring on the small line. Are you from a salt state or down south? I actually do 20 - 30 sets of lines a year for the crack in the crimp.

 

I'm in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The van spent the first 9 months of it's life in Nova Scotia near the ocean with salted roads, then the rest of it's life in the hands of an old man who lived on a farm 80km out of town, so it has seen a lot of dirt roads and road salt in it's life.

The dealership seemed completely baffled and said that cracked lines were the last possibility, which didn't leave me with much faith in their diagnosis (that and mistakenly telling me it was fixed 3 times without double checking their work and damaging my van while it was in their care....) so I figured they were just pulling excuses out of their... well... So after thinking about it I decided with new O-rings and new extension tubes and 3 different people trying to make them seal up that I would have to pull the trigger on a new set of lines. Good to know they weren't completely out to lunch on this one.

I still don't understand how these things fail so regularly, yet the 5th gen vans have a seemingly identical setup (as far as the extension tubes go) and they don't exhibit the same failures.

I'm tempted to do this repair, then once I am satisfied it is holding pressure spray the entire connection down with bedliner to seal it all up.

Now if only the dealership who has the lines on order could actually produce the part that I have paid for... They claim to be able to order the old recall part (for significantly less money than the new part) and keep telling me it'll be one more week - it's been quite a lot of weeks already.

 

Has your van had the recall done already? We have those lines in stock, not sure that there is a problem getting them but Canada is it's own little animal there.

 

Recall was done on the van in March 2006, van was built May 2005. Unfortunately these are the recalled lines that have failed Also I'm at 140,800km and it's a 2005 so I think I'm past the recall cutoff even if I'm wrong.

The local dealership has not been able to get me a set of the recall lines yet so they offered me the retail ones at the recall price, or so they say - I need to go pick them up after work today. Boy I hope they fit in my car, I measured the ones on my van at approx 10'2", I can only fit 10'4" inside my car

Thanks for all your help - I'll let you know how it turns out. If I get the lines today I'll put them on this weekend and I should know sometime next week if the system holds pressure.

 

Zero 10, did you do a vaccum on the system? wouldn't that show that there is a leak? The liquid lines you are talking about, are they the lines that run to the rear air?