Buckaroo
Member
The AC was blowing warm air last October on my ’05 Limited at 162,900miles. I did leak testing – vacuumed the system and it held. Recharged with dye, did not see any leakage using UV light but system was low again in May. Again, I did not see any dye - recharged and paid particular attention to the drain water from the evaporator but no leak was detected. I placed a white paper towel under the evaporator drain and let it run for a while and saw a very faint dye stain around the perimeter of the wet spot. Repeated twice and proceeded with the evap core replacement. After removal, I did verify the evap core leaked at two different spots. AC now working great again and I hope it lasts for another 17 years.
Along with the evap core, also replaced the AC expansion valve and condenser, drained the engine coolant and replaced the engine coolant thermostat and radiator cap. The cost of parts and supplies was $422.85 but $193.00 of that was the condenser which was not planned. The evap core and expansion valve were Denso and sourced from Rockauto along with seals and compressor oil. The old expansion valve was fine but since I was in there I thought I would replace it. The job took me maybe 35 hours over 8 days working at a very enjoyable, casual pace. Too much time I know but I only broke two clips, cleaned the inside of all the ductwork and ended up with no codes at the end so I was happy.
Observations:
Along with the evap core, also replaced the AC expansion valve and condenser, drained the engine coolant and replaced the engine coolant thermostat and radiator cap. The cost of parts and supplies was $422.85 but $193.00 of that was the condenser which was not planned. The evap core and expansion valve were Denso and sourced from Rockauto along with seals and compressor oil. The old expansion valve was fine but since I was in there I thought I would replace it. The job took me maybe 35 hours over 8 days working at a very enjoyable, casual pace. Too much time I know but I only broke two clips, cleaned the inside of all the ductwork and ended up with no codes at the end so I was happy.
Observations:
- I had the FSM doc’s for the job which was important. You can get a full FSM on CD from Rockauto for $25 or so. More Information for DAVE GRAHAM 03T4RUC
- I used torque wrenches on the important stuff and noticed the conversion to ft-lbs and in-lbs in the FSM are wrong in a few cases – check them against the metric specs which are correct.
- Toyota specifies their compressor oil ND-OIL 8 and the generic equivalent is PAG-46. The FSM says to lube the o-rings with the compressor oil but does not specify adding any when replacing AC components which is standard practice. I added 1.5 fl oz to the evap core and 1.5 fl oz to the condenser when replacing – total system capacity is supposed to be 4.5 fl oz. Lack of lubrication to the compressor could cause it to fail and I have seen a number of posts where folks did this job and subsequently had to replace the compressor.
- I had purchased a new desiccant element for the receiver /dryer on the condenser, removed the condenser but the threaded nylon plug was seized.
I ended up destroying it and never did get it out. Not my best day. I replaced the condenser with a Toyota part purchased locally as I could not get a Denso on-line fast enough. I removed the plug in the new condenser to add oil, verified it had a desiccant element installed, noted the o-rings were dry and lubed them. Perhaps this is why it seized on the old condenser which appeared to be original.
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