AC Evaporator
Fred Campbell
My dealer said that the AC evaporator on my 92 SL2 is leaking. Does
anyone have any experience in replacing or repairing one? His cost
would be $750, I am curious just how much work is involved.
Greg Finch
Fred Campbell wrote:
Hi there !the ac evaporator on a Saturn is not that hard to replace !
to lower the repair cost..why not convert it to r-134 ? it would be a
huge savings !r-12 is to high ! 2.5 lbs of freon is around $200..I feel
like a drug dealer selling at that price ! Greg.
Almus Kenter
Greg Finch (gfi...@concentric.net) wrote:
: Fred Campbell wrote:
I am in the same boat as Fred in regards to the
ac evaporator in my 93 SL2....
According to the dealer the problem is that to get to the evaporator
you have to completely remove the dashboard of the car. I spoke
to the technician and he said that the evaporator is perhaps
the most difficult item to replace on the car.... removing the
entire dashboard and doing the job takes an entire day.
So you say it isn't that difficult? have you done it?
-almus
Almus Kenter
Fred Campbell (camp...@itis.com) wrote:
: My dealer said that the AC evaporator on my 92 SL2 is leaking. Does
: anyone have any experience in replacing or repairing one? His cost
: would be $750, I am curious just how much work is involved.
Ha! I was just going to post a nasty Saturn message regarding
the cost of replacing my AC evaporator for my 93 SL2!!!
I just got off the phone with them 5 minutes ago.
750.00 is what I was quoted as well. I will call around for cheaper
prices...
According to the dealer the problem is that to get to the evaporator
you have to completely remove the dashboard of the car. I spoke
to the technician and he said that the evaporator is perhaps
the most difficult item to replace on the car.... removing the
entire dashboard and doing the job takes an entire day.
I asked him why they fail and was informed that they are
made of Aluminum and are brittle... the constant
vibration causes them to fail.
You know how hard your saturn is on your ears? well
apparently it is just as hard on the evaporator.
750.00 is way to much... probably this is as much as
AC costed as an option when the car was first purchased!
The cost of the repair is not due primarily to
the cost of freon.
I am quite miffed that everytime something goes
wrong with my saturn it always costs a bloody fortune...
-Almus
It looks like it will be a hot summer......
Chris Mauritz
Almus Kenter <ken...@flashman.harvard.edu> wrote:
:P~Greg Finch (gfi...@concentric.net) wrote:
:P~: Fred Campbell wrote:
:P~: > My dealer said that the AC evaporator on my 92 SL2 is leaking. Does
:P~: >
:P~: > anyone have any experience in replacing or repairing one? His cost
:P~: > would be $750, I am curious just how much work is involved.
:P~: Hi there !the ac evaporator on a Saturn is not that hard to replace !
:P~: to lower the repair cost..why not convert it to r-134 ? it would be a
:P~: huge savings !r-12 is to high ! 2.5 lbs of freon is around $200..I feel
:P~: like a drug dealer selling at that price ! Greg.
:P~
:P~ I am in the same boat as Fred in regards to the
:P~ac evaporator in my 93 SL2....
:P~According to the dealer the problem is that to get to the evaporator
:P~you have to completely remove the dashboard of the car. I spoke
:P~to the technician and he said that the evaporator is perhaps
:P~the most difficult item to replace on the car.... removing the
:P~entire dashboard and doing the job takes an entire day.
Yep. There are items that are a bitch to replace on many
cars. For example, on a Ford Mustang if you need to replace
the heater core (a $30 part) you need to remove the entire
dash. It takes the better part of a day to do and you also
need to discharge the A/C (some lines are in the way of the
heater core). So it costs about $400-500 to fix by the time
you're done and they actually blow fairly easily.
:P~So you say it isn't that difficult? have you done it?
I haven't done it, but I just looked at my Saturn shop
manual and it looks like a major pain in the ass.
Chris
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Scott
Sorry Greg Finch...
That evaporator is one heck of a problem to replace...
First, you've got to drain the cooling system, yes that's right...
Then you have to purge the freon...
And then you do indeed have to take the entire, and I do mean entire,
dashboard apart to get at the HVAC module...
Once you're at the HAVC module you still have to break it down
to get at the Evaporator...
Figure 1 hour to drain the coolant & purge the freon...
Figure 2-3 hours to tear down the dashboard...
Figure 2 hours to break down the HVAC unit & fix the evaporator...
Figure 2-3 hours to put the dashboard back together...
Figure 1 hour to re-fill the coolant and freon...
10 hours @ $50/hour = $500 in labor alone...
Add in parts...$750 doesn't sound unrealistic...
What caused the evaporator to fail?
Paul W. Henne
Almus Kenter (ken...@flashman.harvard.edu) wrote:
|Fred Campbell (camp...@itis.com) wrote:
|: My dealer said that the AC evaporator on my 92 SL2 is leaking. Does
|: anyone have any experience in replacing or repairing one? His cost
|: would be $750, I am curious just how much work is involved.
|
|
|the cost of replacing my AC evaporator for my 93 SL2!!!
|I just got off the phone with them 5 minutes ago.
|
|750.00 is what I was quoted as well. I will call around for cheaper
|prices...
|
|you have to completely remove the dashboard of the car. I spoke
|to the technician and he said that the evaporator is perhaps
|the most difficult item to replace on the car.... removing the
|entire dashboard and doing the job takes an entire day.
[snip]
According to my Saturn dealer, the evaporator is a $500 part.
Paul
--
------------- Paul W. Henne <p...@clark.net> --------------
"Good judgement comes from experience; and experience, well,
that comes from bad judgement." - Anonymous
--> E-mail replies: Remove "-no.soliciting" from my address
------------------------------------------------------------
T...@astro.net
I just got a '97 SL 8 days ago. Is the evaporator still in the same place
on the 97's or did they put it in a better spot? Seems stupid to put it in a
place like that. Not that I have to worry just yet....
Tom
In article <338607...@netacc.net>, sstout*@netacc.net wrote:
>Almus Kenter wrote:
>> Greg Finch (gfi...@concentric.net) wrote:
>> : Fred Campbell wrote:
>> : > My dealer said that the AC evaporator on my 92 SL2 is leaking. Does
>> : > anyone have any experience in replacing or repairing one? His cost
>> : > would be $750, I am curious just how much work is involved.
>> : Hi there !the ac evaporator on a Saturn is not that hard to replace !
>> : to lower the repair cost..why not convert it to r-134 ? it would be a
>> : huge savings !r-12 is to high ! 2.5 lbs of freon is around $200..I feel
>> : like a drug dealer selling at that price ! Greg.
>> I am in the same boat as Fred in regards to the
>> ac evaporator in my 93 SL2....
>> According to the dealer the problem is that to get to the evaporator
>> you have to completely remove the dashboard of the car. I spoke
>> to the technician and he said that the evaporator is perhaps
>> the most difficult item to replace on the car.... removing the
>> entire dashboard and doing the job takes an entire day.
>> So you say it isn't that difficult? have you done it?
>> -almus
>
>Sorry Greg Finch...
>
>That evaporator is one heck of a problem to replace...
>First, you've got to drain the cooling system, yes that's right...
>Then you have to purge the freon...
>And then you do indeed have to take the entire, and I do mean entire,
>dashboard apart to get at the HVAC module...
>
>Once you're at the HAVC module you still have to break it down
>to get at the Evaporator...
>
>Figure 1 hour to drain the coolant & purge the freon...
>Figure 2-3 hours to tear down the dashboard...
>Figure 2 hours to break down the HVAC unit & fix the evaporator...
>Figure 2-3 hours to put the dashboard back together...
>Figure 1 hour to re-fill the coolant and freon...
>
>10 hours @ $50/hour = $500 in labor alone...
>
>Add in parts...$750 doesn't sound unrealistic...
>
>What caused the evaporator to fail?
E-mail me at the address below, not with the above address.
That address is to help stop junk e-mail!
Tom Randall Amateur Radio - KB2SMS
tran...@mhv.net Mt. Beacon Amateur Radio Club /ARRL/10-10
Member: AAVSO Solar Division
My Astronomy/Ham radio web site:
http://www1.mhv.net/~trandall/welcome.html
Opinions herein are mine and may not be that of MHV.NET!
Almus Kenter
: Sorry Greg Finch...
Scott, You sound like you've done it? do you need any special tools?
I may try to do it myself.
As for purging the freon I think I can just skip that step.
: What caused the evaporator to fail?
well... I don't know... The dealer told me that
the evaporators are Aluminum and could possibly crack due vibration.
One thing that I found **interesting** is that even though other
AC parts houses
have informed me that evaporators are very scarce parts
because they rarely ever fail,
the saturn dealer has them in stock because
they " have replaced a lot of them".... in other words it sounds
like a saturn design feature.
And yet again the Saturn part is *only available* from the dealer.
-almus
Kirk Kohnen <_kohnen@ibm.net>
Almus Kenter wrote:
> : (Comments about what it takes to replace a Saturn evaporator)
> :
> : Figure 1 hour to drain the coolant & purge the freon...
> : Figure 2-3 hours to tear down the dashboard...
> : Figure 2 hours to break down the HVAC unit & fix the evaporator...
> : Figure 2-3 hours to put the dashboard back together...
> : Figure 1 hour to re-fill the coolant and freon...
>
> : 10 hours @ $50/hour = $500 in labor alone...
>
> : Add in parts...$750 doesn't sound unrealistic...
>
> Scott, You sound like you've done it? do you need any special tools?
> I may try to do it myself.
>
> As for purging the freon I think I can just skip that step.
Negative. If there is still refrigerant (either R12 or R134) in there,
then letting it go without recovering it is against the law.
Additionally, it isn't a very nice thing to do. R12 destroys about
100,000 times its weight in protective ozone. If you let a kilogram of
R12 out, you have just destroyed about 100 metric tons of stratospheric
ozone. Venting R134 doesn't destroy ozone, but it is a greenhouse gas.
(Although, the EPA permits the use of R134 in dusting bottles and for
powering air horns. Go figure...)
Now, if all the refrigerant already leaked out, then you don't have to
purge the system -- it's already empty.
>
> : What caused the evaporator to fail?
>
> well... I don't know... The dealer told me that
> the evaporators are Aluminum and could possibly crack due vibration.
> One thing that I found **interesting** is that even though other
> AC parts houses
> have informed me that evaporators are very scarce parts
> because they rarely ever fail,
> the saturn dealer has them in stock because
> they " have replaced a lot of them".... in other words it sounds
> like a saturn design feature.
>
> And yet again the Saturn part is *only available* from the dealer.
>
> -almus
I hope that they have this problem fixed on the '97 Saturns. (They've
had 5 years).
jsd
I was just quoated $900.00 to replace my broken AC in a '93 SW2.(56,000
miles)
An Air Conditioner should last longer than 3 summers. I've lost faith in
Saturn and American cars in general. My last car was a Honda Civic. Had
it 9 years, 109,000 miles. Still ran good at the end.
almus
Kirk Kohnen <_koh...@ibm.net> <"Kirk Kohnen <_kohnen"@ibm.net>> wrote in
article <3387C0...@ibm.net>...
> Almus Kenter wrote:
> > : (Comments about what it takes to replace a Saturn evaporator)
> > :
> >
> > As for purging the freon I think I can just skip that step.
>
> Negative. If there is still refrigerant (either R12 or R134) in there,
> then letting it go without recovering it is against the law.
> Additionally, it isn't a very nice thing to do. R12 destroys about
> 100,000 times its weight in protective ozone. If you let a kilogram of
> R12 out, you have just destroyed about 100 metric tons of stratospheric
> ozone. Venting R134 doesn't destroy ozone, but it is a greenhouse gas.
> (Although, the EPA permits the use of R134 in dusting bottles and for
> powering air horns. Go figure...)
Thanks for your environmental concern....but the whole point of my
tongue-in-cheek remark was that ALL MY REFRIGERANT HAS ALREADY LEAKED
OUT THROUGH MY EVAPORATOR CORE!!!
Maybe I should have kept my doors and windows closed so as to keep
all the freon captive in my car.?
Kirk Kohnen <_kohnen@ibm.net>
I think that you should have! ;-)
Seriously, I figured that all of your freon was already gone. Lots of
people (ok, 5 people) read these posts for advice and I wanted to make
it clear that one really should recycle the freon if at all possible.
For the environmental reasons (and the economic issues - freon == big
bucks) one should recycle at least the R12 stuff.
Brock Visnich
jsd wrote:
>
> I was just quoated $900.00 to replace my broken AC in a '93 SW2.(56,000
> miles)
> An Air Conditioner should last longer than 3 summers. I've lost faith in
> Saturn and American cars in general. My last car was a Honda Civic. Had
> it 9 years, 109,000 miles. Still ran good at the end.
Gee, seems like a pretty small sampling of data on which to trash an
entire domestic industry. My Dad's early-'80's VW bus (air-cooled) AC
compressor has been quoted at $800+ for just the cost of the part alone.
I guess that means per your logic that I should lose all faith in
Uber-cars M-B, BMW, AUDI, and of course, VW. Just round file all their
cars because ONE customers AC crapped out well out of warranty.
(Yawn) It must be bedtime. I'm gettin' a little cranky...
||||||
/ _ _ \
( @ @ )
+----------.oOOo--()--oOOo.-------------------------------------+
Brock Visnich
br...@one.net
Bible Pig Latin Translation
at:ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ea/earl/Ible-bay/Ible-bay.html
John 3:16 [Pig Latin Version]
Or-fay Od-gay o-say oved-lay e-thay orld-way, at-thay e-hay
ave-gay is-hay only-ay egotten-bay On-say, at-thay osoever-whay
elieveth-bay in-ay im-hay ould-shay ot-nay erish-pay, ut-bay ave-
hay everlasting-ay ife-lay.
+------------------- Oooo.--------------------------------------+
.oooO ( ) zzz.|\ _,,,---,,_
( ) ) / /,`.-'`' -. ;-;;,_..
\ ( (_/ |,*< ) )-,_. ,\ ( `'-`
\_) '---''(_/--' `-'\_)
Almus Kenter
Brock Visnich (br...@one.net.spamhammer) wrote:
: jsd wrote:
: >
: > I was just quoated $900.00 to replace my broken AC in a '93 SW2.(56,000
: > miles)
: > An Air Conditioner should last longer than 3 summers. I've lost faith in
: > Saturn and American cars in general. My last car was a Honda Civic. Had
: > it 9 years, 109,000 miles. Still ran good at the end.
: Gee, seems like a pretty small sampling of data on which to trash an
: entire domestic industry. My Dad's early-'80's VW bus (air-cooled) AC
: compressor has been quoted at $800+ for just the cost of the part alone.
: I guess that means per your logic that I should lose all faith in
: Uber-cars M-B, BMW, AUDI, and of course, VW. Just round file all their
: cars because ONE customers AC crapped out well out of warranty.
Did the VW compressor just crap out?
or did it crap out in "early-'80's" + 3 years?
If it is was just recently then you have 10? 15? years
on the compressor which is certainly respectable
given the state of the technology..
I would also expect a compressor built in '93 to
outlast an early 80's unit.......
Just trying to better understand your comparison.
-almus
Almus Kenter
jsd wrote:
>
> I was just quoated $900.00 to replace my broken AC in a '93 SW2.(56,000
> miles)
> An Air Conditioner should last longer than 3 summers. I've lost faith in
> Saturn and American cars in general. My last car was a Honda Civic. Had
> it 9 years, 109,000 miles. Still ran good at the end.
Well I agree that most HVAC components should last more than
three years and I am pissed that repairs cost so much more than
the original option.
Why did it fail? My 93 SL2 failed due to an evaporator
core leak.. I'd be interested to get a better idea
how common this failure mode is... especially
since the dealer told me that they have replaced quite
a few of these....
-almus
Rod Murray
In article <338d6...@cfanews.harvard.edu>, ken...@flashman.harvard.edu
(Almus Kenter) wrote:
Just had mine replaced in my 93 SL1. Cost approx $600.00
rod murray
--
Conventional wisdom says, "You get what you pay for" With cigars however this is not necessarily true. I have smoked many a $5 cigar that had neither the flavor nor the quality of construction found in my favorite $1 cigar.
HEISNUTS
Two of my friends have Saturns (93 and 96) and BOTH of them have had to
replace their compressors (Saturn fixed the 96 under warranty). What
seems to be the problem with these units?
Scott
JSD:
Would you be so kind as to share with the group what went wrong
with your A/C? Of particular interest would be the list of parts
that failed.
With the recent rash of AC failure posts I'm sure any info you could
provide
the group would be greatly appreciated.
Thanx,
Scott
jsd wrote:
>
> I was just quoated $900.00 to replace my broken AC in a '93 SW2.(56,000
> miles)
> An Air Conditioner should last longer than 3 summers. I've lost faith in
> Saturn and American cars in general. My last car was a Honda Civic. Had
> it 9 years, 109,000 miles. Still ran good at the end.
<...Snip...>
jsd
I am not at all mechanically inclined, so I only know that they told me
the Evaporator coil(?) had cracked. The only way to fix it was to
totally replace it. It involved a lot of labor, (removing the dash if
not more).
I had another irritating problem: About six months ago my rear widow
wiper stopped spraying water. The wiper workd fine. They told me I would
have to replace the entire thing, motor and wiper. It would cost
$275.00 That's too much for a squirt of water.
I was thinking of getting another car anyways for 1998, so I 'll
probably buy one sooner.
jsd
Rod Murray wrote:
>
> In article <338d6...@cfanews.harvard.edu>, ken...@flashman.harvard.edu
> (Almus Kenter) wrote:
>
> > >
> > > I was just quoated $900.00 to replace my broken AC in a '93 SW2.(56,000
> > > miles)
> > > An Air Conditioner should last longer than 3 summers. I've lost faith in
> > > Saturn and American cars in general. My last car was a Honda Civic. Had
> > > it 9 years, 109,000 miles. Still ran good at the end.
> >
>
> Just had mine replaced in my 93 SL1. Cost approx $600.00
>
> rod murray
What area of the country are you in? I'm in the Chicago area.
almus
jsd <j...@interaccess.com> wrote in article
<3394EC...@interaccess.com>...
>
> I am not at all mechanically inclined, so I only know that they told me
> the Evaporator coil(?) had cracked. The only way to fix it was to
> totally replace it. It involved a lot of labor, (removing the dash if
> not more).
> I had another irritating problem: About six months ago my rear widow
> wiper stopped spraying water. The wiper workd fine. They told me I would
> have to replace the entire thing, motor and wiper. It would cost
> $275.00 That's too much for a squirt of water.
>
> I was thinking of getting another car anyways for 1998, so I 'll
> probably buy one sooner.
>
Yup... this was what I am thinking; time to get another car....
I just figure my AC evaporator is more of a whole series of
irksome and expensive problems..... It is too bad 'cause
I hate to spend the money on a new car. I have
religiously maintained my Saturn with Mobil-1 etc. and originally planned
on keeping it for 250,000 miles!
It seems that even though many things on my Saturn car have
proved to be very reliable (clutch,engine etc); other things that you would
NEVER think
of as failing are starting to fail and they cost a FORTUNE to fix....
Hell the AC evaporator r&r must cost more than a new clutch!
and there are NO MOVING PARTS!!!
Funny thing about my dealer; he typically *always* follows
up on service with a questionaire on quality of service etc etc...
Well after I picked up my car from my AC diagnosis he could
tell that I was NOT very pleased... well no followup this time!
I wrote to Saturn but I am sure that I will never get a reply...
-almus