Air Conditioning Condenser and Drier Replacement Help

Dude, It's an online forum where people share advice on how to do this stuff. Why not share rather than make some condescending posts? Maybe if you did that, and folks were more educated on how detailed a process it is, less people will try it on their own. It would be a much better approach than telling a large community they don't know what they're doing and to just bring their work to you.

 

Pretty sure you can read at this point... Scroll up and find his damage is already done before I got here
I'm also nowhere near local, so he can't just bring it to me. Also... If he'd already messed with it before I got it, price likely goes up. Or don't you know how it works?
#somepeopleskids

 

If the home mechanic wasn't mean to work on their A/C, then Amazon wouldn't so readily provide us the parts and tools to do it. You're not all wrong, we should at least take it to the shop to have the refrigerant properly evacuated first, but nothing is going to keep the DIYer from DIYing his A/C if he wants to do it, regardless of the potential mistakes that can be made. We're American's, its what we do.

I'll add, I've had my F150 A/C professionally repaired four times by different shops including dealership and private business shops. It continued to fail year after year. Always cost at least $800. I finally decided to replace the entire system myself, every component. It cost me about $1100, and a week of my time, a wee bit more than the pro's replacement of the compressor. I found it worth the cost of my own time and mistakes. I made a few, but I learned a bit and I'll gladly share my experience with the next guy who wants to do it.

 

I had to pull apart my grill/radiator area to replace my oil pump seal. While I was at it, I found one of the AC hard lines had busted off.. no wonder I never had AC in this rig.
I pulled off the condenser and drier since I figured I couldn't do any harm if the system was already empty. Sounds like once I get the replacement parts together, I should take it to a pro before reassembling anything. That's unfortunate because I was hoping to pressure test the system to check for other issues before I brought it in to get charged.
I'll check to see if the condenser has any fluid in it. If so, should I drain it out and keep it for the mechanic? Should I plug the condenser and just leave it in there?
Also, how much does it cost to get my broken line rebuilt (it's the one between the condenser and the drier)? I can't imagine it'd cost as much as a stock replacement ($47.30+shipping), it's only like 12" long, but it does have sort of a custom end on one side.
Finally, do I need to consider replacing anything other than the busted line and the drier? Just guessing at what's broken without pressure testing first isn't natural for me at all, but it sounds like my plan would've messed stuff up. Also, a pressure test only tells part of the story, so...

I have no idea how long the system's been down, but I've owned the rig for 22k miles (just over 3 years), so at least that long. I'm living in Sacramento this year, so AC is kind of a big deal right now. Any advice is appreciated.

 

Never mind. Found this on another thread.

 

Don't worry about the member you quoted.. He has an issue with folks working on their own rigs.

@turbodb Has several good write ups you might find useful. I suggest reading through everything and see if it's something you'd be willing to tackle / have the tools for.
https://adventuretaco.com/guides/climate-control/

And @Timmah! has some very informative videos on the subject as well.
https://www.youtube.com/c/TimmyTheToolman/search?query=ac

The knowledge is out there, even if some aren't willing to share it.

 

I followed the advice from the quote I posted a few minutes ago. Here's the product I'll be going with. There's also one that includes the condenser.

I didn't see any pressure switch listed on rockauto. Looks like I still have some research to do.

Edit: Autozone carries the pressure switch. It also looks like you could loan a set of manifold gauges and a vacuum pump from them. How could I resist?

 

seems like a legal loophole that benefits the DIYer but the professionals are held to a much higher standard.

https://www.epa.gov/mvac/epa-regulatory-requirements-mvac-system-servicing

I can understand the pro getting frustrated and pissed. Don’t necessarily agree with how it was communicated but I understand.

 

as it turns out based on the advice of the other guy, my original plan wouldn't actually have screwed anything up because the whole system is on red alert anyway

I would've paid someone to charge my system and probably would have gone right back and paid him to discharge it again when something failed within the first month



thankfully, I found what I believe to be a pretty affordable and bulletproof option in replacing the entire system

 

Thats what I did on my F150. Bought manifold gauge and vacuum pump off Amazon for half the cost of renting. Replaced everything including the heater core under the dash.

 

looks like you can loan the tools from Autozone. my brother in law says they charge you for the tool, then give you a full refund when you return it. sounds like fraud, but it's actually a program they have for select tools.

just make sure you can afford to get charged like $500 initially, but... how could you say no?!!

 

I did that once. Rented from autozone. Cost over $300. Didn't want to put that hold on my card for who knows how long I'd need it. So I paid cash. but the caveat to that was they could only issue the refund if they happened to have that much cash in their register when I came back. I swung and missed a few times before I got my refund.

 

Just did it for a thread repair kit. Super simple, wish I went to them instead of buying a pressure guage I'll never use again.

 

Just make sure all your friends' ACs are recharged, and then sell the kit on offer up. I always look there first before buying something like an ac gauge set.

 

In the last 6+ years running my Timmy the Toolman YouTube channel, the guys who seem to give me the most shit are the "Paid Professionals". I think it's because they really think they're something special and it bothers them DIYers, like most of us on these forums, do just fine when we are armed with the Right Information, Right Tools and Right Level of Patience to see projects through to completion. Plus, the paid guys screw up quite a bit while charging you a lot for their time and "expertise". No doubt there's very good paid mechanics out there but there's also hacks and downright crooks who take advantage of people. AC work can be a bit technical but it's not above what a DIYer can do on his/her own.

 

This is one area that a shop should be doing this,
Too much oil or not enough oil put in the system and you will burn up the compressor over time.
If that happens and you get metal in the system then you have a much bigger problem that could involve replacement of the dryer, condenser, compressor, evaporator and valve under the dash.
It’s a delicate balance.
Same thing with refrigeration, to much and it wouldn’t cool, too little and it would cool.

the dryer should absolutely be replaced,

the dryer holds oil in it too,

a shop will need to evacuate everything in the system starting from zero to know how much oil to add,
I believe you have to turn the compressor over also to get the oil out of it to know exactly how much is in the system.

I replaced my compressor, dryer, condenser but left the rest for a pro,
They charged me around 300.00 and replaced some new seals

 

That's exactly what I did as well, removed and installed new parts myself and left the charging to the nearby mechanic.

 

Yup 40 degrees is what I get when charged by a professional

 

Right on!

 

The new compressor usually comes with the compressor oil. The dryer and condenser don't but the Toyota factory service manual tells you how much oil to add to the system when replacing those components. You could have added the necessary ND oil, evacuated the system with a vacuum pump to lower the atmospheric pressure so any moisture in the system boiled off and then recharged the system with the specified amount of refrigerant. You used a "Pro", but you could have been that Pro. To each his own I guess. That $300 could have bought you a nice manifold gauge set and a vacuum pump.