Help!!! My ac compressor took a dump. The shop wants 1100 bucks. Ouch. I've heard the ones from autozone aren't reliable. Any ideas for what brand? I'm gonna do it myself and only wanna do it once. Wife's car and she's not happy. Living in south Texas with no ac sucks

 

Also what other parts should be replaced with the compressor?

 

When your compressor took a 'dump', it more than likely sent debris into the rest of the system. It's not to big of a PITA job but it takes awhile to do the whole process. You will need a new dryer as well. When my compressor went bad, I was offered a supposedly 'good' used one for $75 and thought 'great deal' and also bought a new A/C Delco dryer (they are now made in China) and went through all the effort to clean out the system and installed everything and had it charged. I'm going to tell you, don't buy anything used, buy new, my system worked for a week and quit (another bad compressor), I was pissed off. you can find reasonably priced 'new' compressors for a lot less than what you had quoted. Take your time and research everything about A/C repair DIY online. Good luck !!

 

I did a total overhaul on mine. Don't take it to a shop and get raped, only to have to do the job over correctly yourself. Btdt.

Forum members told me to go to Harbor freight and get the gauges, great advice. Do the job yourself. What you really need to do is make CERTAIN you have no other leaks. They are real sneaky...

Buy the drier for certain. Your new compressor will probably come with the additive in it already. Should be about $200 or so, maybe 250 for the compressor itself. $60 for the dryer, you need to replace that. Buy the vacuum pump, the good one at HF (if Good is the right word). From there, just replace your parts, vacuum the hell outa it and refill with refrigerant. Use the proper pressures, don't worry about volumes. There is a chart for the pressures depending on the ambient temp, which in your case will be high. In other words, pressures will be high.

If that is all that is failed, you will be golden as soon as it's replaced. You need to take that compressor out through the wheel well, so some stuff needs pulled. I forget what all, it's been a while since I did mine. If you have questions, just ask here or pm me, I know it can be intimidating your first time, but it's no big deal. All told, you will own all the tools for the job, buy all your parts, and still save 50% of what the job will cost, and if by chance there is another issue, it will just be your time and the additional parts. Not another raping at the hands of a shop that does hvac work.

 

Let me rephrase that. My compressor hasn't stopped completely. It's just not moving the freon. I was told that the valves are shot. Thanks for all the replies and advice. Gonna do some research and start the repairs

 

You can do it yourself...replace EVERYTHING, Compressor, dryer, CONDENSOR and orifice. Clean out A/C lines. Pull a vacumm, the use two cans of Freon and one small can of PAG 150 compressor oil. NO MORE! System only calls for 1.9 cans.

 

Why the condenser? Just curious as I have been around a while and done alot of a/c work on street rods etc and can't recall condensers giving me a problem unless they catch a rock or split from poor mounting or construction

 

Here is a link you might find helpful. I have never gone thru it, just kept it in case.

http://www.digitalcorvettes.com/foru...d.php?t=153172

 

Good advice above. Mark and I did mine two years ago. Do your homework, you can do it. Hint. Instead of removing the water pump for access to the compressor swap, loosen the motor mounts and use a second jack to raise the whole engine a tad. Swap out the unit then lower and tighten the mounts again.

 

For what it's worth, my compressor died and I decided to replace it myself. Bought a brand new OEM compressor, completely flushed the system, installed a new drier & orifice. New compressor died less than 5k miles later. I happen to be an HVAC technician so I had all the proper tools and charged the system properly with the correct amount of R134a after a full evacuation, I really don't think it was operator error.

I was so pissed that I didn't even bother getting a new compressor under warranty, I brought it to a shop who replaced it (and the condenser because of the amount of crap in the system).

That one lasted 5k as well, but when that one died, the shop had to replace it on HIS dime. So far, this one's working fairly well, but we'll see what this summer brings....

 

You say it is not moving freon. check the belt and tensioner are ok.
what are the pressures?

 

I did mine 3 years ago. The car is a daily driver. It works perfectly to this day.

I also replaced the evaporator (not the condenser). Also, my new compressor came with Ice32 (additive) which I guess sorta supercharges the cooling efficiency of the system. Seems to work, I can freeze a person in that car now. I didn't use a genuine gm compressor as I recall. I was also surprised at how inexpensive it was. Can't recall what I paid, but I expected more.

I did the dryer too, and some hoses. Orifice too. For the few extra bucks, get the pressurized flush kit that blows all that crap out that all the people above are making you in fear of. If you clean up everything, it'll work just fine when it's done. Amazon has the pressure flush kits with the flush fluid. Look into them.

 

Curious, how long did it take to replace the evaporator? You have to pull the dash to do that, right?

 

Because when a A/C compressor starts to puke it's guts up, it leaves behind lots of trash in the condenser which then starts to ruin the new A/C compressor.

 

You beat me to posting this video.

 

AH! I sit corrected - as I said I have never had issues with condensers on all the "older" systems I've worked on - good video - good point taken

 

Ah yea, you have to pull EVERYthing! It's a fair amount of time for sure. It's relatively clean work if nothing else. There's a lot to remove both inside the car and in the engine bay.

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