I just happened onto this Thread this Tuesday evening June 30,2020. I was surfing the net looking for the best price I could find on a New A/C Compressor for my '99 C5 Coupe. I have been adding a 12 oz can of 134A Freon to it every year for most of the 10 years I have owned the car. Well I added a can of 134A Freon at the beginning of May of this year and it already leaked out in a little less then 2 months and everything was pointing to a leak in the seam of the Compressor based on everything I have read until I came across this thread. Like everyone else I wondered how I was going to go about getting that compressor out when you can barely see it from under the car. I had added A/C DYE to the Compressor last year when I added a can of Freon. When I looked for leaks with the Special Light I couldn't find anything under the hood but when I put it up on my lift my compressor lit right up all around it making me think that a leak could of been anywhere and my searching around told me about a seam in these compressors that are known to leak. My car has a original 37k miles on it but it is now 21 years old although in great shape so I kind of figured if I could get to the manifold to change the seals and had to take the compressor out of the car to do the job I may as well replace it with a New Compressor once again before I saw this Thread and someone mentioning that it only took their friend 15 minutes to change the seals. A little hard for me to believe being I been driving and owning Corvettes 50 years this year and turned plenty of wrenches on them. Anyway I am going to get the 2 seals and put the car up on my lift when it gets a little cooler out and take the passenger front wheel off and see how much trouble it will be to get at the back of that compressor to the A/C Compressor Manifold. Hopefully that is my only problem. I will definitely chime back in once I get it done to let everyone know how I made out although it might not be right away. I appreciate the post and wanted that to be known no matter how it works out.

 

it's really not all that hard to reach with the proper extensions and a swivel socket. Best of lock.

 

Hey thanks for the response. I just don't know when I can get to it. Hopefully I will get it up on my lift within a week or so to at least take the wheel off and take a look to see how bad a job it may be to get at. Although I mentioned turning wrenches on Corvettes on my own cars over the last 50 years I haven't had to really do much to this C5 since I purchased it in 2010. I rebuilt a headlight motor,fixed the drivers seat bottom with a foam kit and installed a Double Din Radio in the dash. That's about it the car has been so good to me. Funny I nursed that compressor for 10 years with a can of freon and never had a problem until now. I guess it was bound to happen.

 

There are two additional leak paths from the rear head. The high pressure relief valve with the green o ring and the control valve with the black o ring. The large green o ring is for the cylinder. There are two of them, one for the rear head and one for the front head joints.

 

What was the price to fix this yourself? I was quoted $3K from a shop.
where did you by your parts?
thanks
Sharon

This is what they did. They had the car overnight and they said the Freon leaked out and would need a compressor for $3k. I said no, paid bill and left.

 

Got the compressor and condenser at Rock Auto for a few hundred dollars. Refrigerant and incidentals at the parts store.

 

Without any other problems you can buy a kit with everything except R134A Freon online new for around $250. With Freon for less then $300. Still waiting for things to Kool down with the hot and humid weather to do mine. Have everything I need to do the job.

 

Just finished my AC system, compressor lost suction, luckley it did not grenade itself, so the fix wasn't that bad. Pulled exhaust manifold and water pump as suggested by manual, replaced, dryer, strainer (no debris, so no flush required), compressor and condenser all from Rockauto, cost less than $400 and 2 days work. Vacuumed system, 28 oz of refrigerant and appropriate Pag oil in each component, done back to AC again. One suggestion is to use Nylog, on seals it helps lube and is compatible with refrigerant and Pag.

 

$3000 sounds really high. What did they include in the estimate?

If you were to have a leaky evaporator, that is probably the single most expensive repair. The dash has to be pulled and the hvac module removed. Once that is out, some may recommend replacing the heater and door actuators too. I cannot imagine that is a $3000 job, even at dealer part prices and labor rates.

Next most expensive should be the compressor. No idea what current replacement rates are but back in the 90’s typical GM dealer price to replace a compressor was about $600. So what is that today, $1000?

Anything else (condenser, leak repair at a joint, hose replacement, evacuate and recharge .....) should be in the multiples of hundreds of dollars.

 

I was thinking the same thing $3k is a lot of money. I would think since she mentioned she paid the bill for them diagnosing the problem everything they found wrong with it they should of listed on the bill. She looks like a newbie forum member. Hope they didn't scare her into selling the car and I hope she comes back to the forum and lets us know what is going on.