Re: [DMCForum] evaporator hell was... evaporator is back out

["Walter Coe" <Whalt@xxxxxxx>]

Okay, now I'm starting to really get pissed.  I tried to
pull the $30+ VOV from my leaky evaporator hoping that I
could reuse it, and it won't come out.  I tried the special
extraction tools.  I tried soaking it in oil.  --Nothing.
So I grab it with pliers and pry.  The screen part finally
came out, and it's covered in a thick layer of "black
death".  Where did this crap come from?  See photo at:
www.DMCForum.org/images/offtopic/black_death.jpg

When I took the system apart originally (two years ago), the
orifice tube screen only had a few metal chunks on it from
the compressor not having any oil.  The evaporator lines
were kinked by the previous owner, so I had them replaced by
a so-called reputable shop.  They claim to have flushed it
and pressure tested it, so I didn't do anything to flush it
once I got it back.  Maybe this was a mistake.  After I
install it in the dash, I find out that they used the wrong
ID pipe.  I did not feel like taking the dash all apart
again just to throw the evaporator back at the repair shop.
So I bored it out with a drill.  Since this was uphill, I
didn't get metal shavings too far up there.  I moped them
out with cotton swabs soaked in refrigerant oil.

Two years later in this same piece of pipe, I find it
spraying refrigerant & oil.  It smoked on the coolant pipes
making it look like the car caught fire.  Once I took it out
to get a better look, I could not see any hole.  I figured
that it is too small to see.  Well now upon closer
inspection, maybe it came from the ribbed/crimp lateral
pattern.  Maybe there is a crack in one of those
longitudinal lines.  Maybe that black dot is a hole.  See
photo at:
www.DMCForum.org/images/offtopic/where_da_hole.jpg

The a/c shop screwed me in at least one respect: the pipe
they put on there was wrong.  But where did the black death
come from?  It wasn't there when I took the system apart the
first time.  I flushed everything (except the evaporator)
with generous quantities of Dura 141.  I did not pre-flush
with anything.  The compressor was a sorry-ass rebuilt one.
(Note to self: never trust a rebuilt part unless you rebuild
it yourself.)  It had who-knows-what rancid oil in there, so
I flushed it out with Dura 141 as per what the directions on
the can specifically said not to do.  (What the hell do they
know anyway?)  I filled it with 8 to 10 oz of Ester-100 oil,
pulled a vacuum, partially charged with R-12, turned pulley
by hand to seat new seal.  Then pulled another vacuum and
fully charged with R-12.  It worked for two years before
sprouting a leak.  So then where did the contaminants get
into my system from?

While doing this overhaul, I had to leave the system
partially disassembled, accumulator open, but everything was
taped over to keep air out.  It wasn't pressure tight, but
decently sealed as well as duct tape can do.  Or was this
good enough?  I left it like this for maybe three weeks.
Could I have had moisture contaminating my Ester-100?  Would
this cause black death?

Well, it stopped raining.  Time to pull my last evaporator
out of another car.

Walt

Yahoo! Groups Sponsor

ADVERTISEMENT

---

Yahoo! Groups Links

• To visit your group on the web, go to:
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/DMCForum/
   
• To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
  DMCForum-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
   
• Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.