Evaporator core leak? Help

Yesterday, I was driving around and noticed that only the driver-side vent was blowing cool air. I also noticed an odd smell coming from the vents, which prompted me to visit my local A/C repair shop. They ran their tests and found my system was low on refrigerant and had a high possibility of an evaporator core leak.

“This is a typical problem with the Tacoma,” the tech said. In short, the cost of repair would come out to just over $1200!

How is this an issue for a 2017 Tacoma? Does anyone have experience with products that I can inject into the A/C system, like a stop leak? I’m eventually going to get the A/C work done, but I need a temporary fix for now. Thanks in advance!

 

At minimum just keep re filling it until you get it fixed properly

Stop leak products are garbage and just make things worse

 

Damn I was hoping for some better news lol. I just saw a can of 1234yf refrigerant for $200 which is stupid expensive.

 

A/C repair is always $$$$$$

I had a hard line leak and it was $700 to fix.

Some A/C replacement jobs on Tacomas require gutting the entire interior down to the bare floor and it costs several thousand dollars.

 

That sounds about on par for an evaporator replacement depending on labor rates in your area, it pays 8.1 hrs for the evaporator R&R because the dash has to come out plus 1.6 hrs for evac and recharge.

It seems evaporator leaks are pretty common on newer vehicles, I've done quite a few in the past few years although I've yet to do one on a Tacoma.

Pretty common to smell the refrigerant oil inside when the evaporator is leaking, usually you can also see dye coming out of the A/C drain as well (the dye glows bright green under UV light).

It can be a daunting task for some people, I enjoy doing them on most vehicles.

Being it's a 1234yf system it's pretty cost prohibitive to keep adding refrigerant to it as 1234yf costs around $5-8/oz.
Never put stop leak in an A/C system, it typically won't stop a leak but it will wreck the system if any moisture or air ever enters the system.

 

help? what can we do for you? you should get a couple of estimates first
how many miles on truck?

 

This^^^^

 

Yeah, you have to rip out the whole dash. It's a pain in the neck, literally.

 

Yeah seems like the common theme is to just get the work done rather than put a band-aid on it.

 

Apologies, I probably should have put “advice” instead of “help”

 

yes, unless you are broke down on the road

 

I just came to join the choir of recommending staying away from a/c stop leaks and such.

I'm a strong supporter of the "replacement" refrigerants and even have it in all my own vehicles including the Tacoma oddly enough but, the stop leaks specifically carry far more risk than even an evaporator replacement in my opinion. As DM93 stated, air/moisture in the a/c circuit with stop leak is more or less a game over.

If you decide you want to pursue using one anyways, your best shot at success is to pull a vacuum, go for a drive then when you get home let the vehicle heat soak for a few minutes to get the a/c pipes and components warm to allow more moisture to be released then attach your stop leak to the low side but pull a vacuum through the high side for another 30 minutes or so to pull any moisture and air from the stop leak charge hose and top of the can before removing the vacuum from the high side and sending the miracle in a can through the lines.

Edit, despite recommending staying away from stop leak products, this is obviously alot of money to repair your a/c so i'm sure the temptation will arise... give the technical support line at Duracool a call at the bottom of their website. https://www.duracool.com/

Barry is the technical support and owner of the company. Loves to chat and will be able to tell you the best way to go about using stop leaks if you choose to.