Anyone Removed The Aircon From The Car ?

[Jonathan]

Was going to start this but not sure whether it needs specialist attention or not.

I assume the system is dead - it never felt cold so I assume the gas has lost it's pressure - however do I need to get it looked at propperly or just start un-doing the nuts and bolts (want it off for weight saving).

Never ever touched aircon systems before so excuse the dippy question.

[Artie]

Jonathan,

if you are planning on taking it off for the track car, it'll be fairly straight forward. Just start finding the bits and remove them one at a time. If you are wanting to keep it for the street car, your GT3, then I suggest having a shop pressure test the system and see if it can be fixed. I was told my system had a catastrophic leak at the condenser and needed all these parts that would cost of course 1000's of dollars to fix. I pulled the condenser off myself used some copper solder for cold water pipes, refitted a new elbow onto the hose end, recharged with readily available R134 and she works a treat! I put mayb one 4 OZ can of freon and leak sealer in per summer(done this 2X now) and works fine. Matter of fact drove it today in 96F and had to turn the fan down to 3 to keep from freezing my knee off!

Artie

[Jonathan]

Yeah it's off the track car, gonna sell the bits afterwards - me being me I was gonna rip it all off like a kid at x-mas but I am aware of the gas in there and what liqud gas can do when you decompress it quickly....booom.

I was going to crack a coupling very slightly and let it piddle out over a few hours....just wondered if there was any hazard I am being ignorant of ?

[Artie]

Yeah it's off the track car, gonna sell the bits afterwards - me being me I was gonna rip it all off like a kid at x-mas but I am aware of the gas in there and what liqud gas can do when you decompress it quickly....booom.

I was going to crack a coupling very slightly and let it piddle out over a few hours....just wondered if there was any hazard I am being ignorant of ?

I believe Freon is an inert gas so letting it leak out slowly shouldn't cause any "boom". You could also see if your local auto mechanic shop that you fancy wants to recover it for you. They may not have any need for it but here in the states R12 is still available from licensed places so they'll recover it for you free of charge(as they'll just resell it to some poor unknowing sod!)

Artie

[fflyingdog]

Yeah it's off the track car, gonna sell the bits afterwards - me being me I was gonna rip it all off like a kid at x-mas but I am aware of the gas in there and what liqud gas can do when you decompress it quickly....booom.

I was going to crack a coupling very slightly and let it piddle out over a few hours....just wondered if there was any hazard I am being ignorant of ?

Hi Jonothan

If/when you do let the gas just "piddle" out, be careful that you do it in an open area or at least give the gas time to disapate as it pools and if you breathe it in it will overcome you,should really evac it ,also if you have any type of oil or leak sealer in system it becomes highly corrosive/acidic after becoming compressed countless times,of course you know soon as you remove the a/c the sun will shine .............ok maybe not.

Cheers

Nick S4s

[Jonathan]

Ahh thats what I was worried about - its a CFC isn't it ?

Yeah I was going to let it out on the drive....do my bit towards the planet and all - we'll see how it goes, I have a sneaky suspision (how do you spell that ?) it is totally dry though.

[docf]

if its any help i caught a facefull of this stuff when i was first taking my car apart and i'm still alive.. whats in those lines is not pure gas but has an oily component to it as well. Just loosen one of the fittings up front slightly and then throw a rag over it and open the rest of the way. The compressor is on the forward bottom right of the engine and runs off its own belt. Attaches with 4 moderately accessible bolts but you will need to remove the bellypan to get to it. I pulled the compressor, lines, and the thing that makes the air cold up front by the fan for total weight savings of ~50 pounds. I kept the condenser and plumbed it into the chargecooler sport 300 style for a little added cooling capacity and to shift a little more weight to the front of the car.

[red vtec]

its illegal to vent it, your supposed to have the system pumped out. but sounds like it is dead. I have a similar issue on my honda prelude, 500+++ for the evaporator, I'm going have a look at it myself. you can get A/C pressue testers in Halfords that will tell you if its empty.

[th4neuk]

Jon,

It is illegal to vent it. However if it is anything like mine when I cracked a fitting on the front drier to see what it was like I didn't even get a pfffffff at all. System was totally dead. If you do try undoing it then I would suggest at the drier as this is easy to get at. Not being insulting but it is the round black tuby thing under the front bonnet behind the right hand headlight pod.

The bit that might not be easy to get out is the second radiator bit under the dash. It looked a pig to get out so I left it.

HTH

Cheers