Had dye put in system no leaks found under hood or firewall, must be inside under dash.
Question how do you get to the coil under the dash?
Thank you.

 

Service manual probably needed for this one. I don't know of a step-by-step out there for this job as they rarely fail. Major dashboard disassembly to remove the evaporator.

Hopefully others will chime in


Cheers
DD

 

I had to remove the dash as part of my rebuild. First, make QUITE sure the leak IS in the aircon unit in the dash, rather than, say, the evaporation valve seal. A positive test for a leak there is a MUST, as the dash removal is a pretty big job. The best way to test is to isolate the dash unit and pressurize that only, or evacuate that only and see what gives.

If it definitely is the dash unit, this is the outline procedure:

1. disconnect battery
2. remove steering wheel and instruments
3. remove glove box internals
4. remove radio and aircon knobs
5. remove outer aircon outlets each end of the dash
6. remove small trim at each side of dash
7. undo dash attachment bolts at each end accessible through the removed aircon outlets
8. remove the aircon blowers to aircon unit big blue rubber 'hoses'
9. undo inner dash attachment bolts (hard to see but they are there each side of the central bodywork bracers, highish up)
10. undo bolts holding dash to steering column
11. undo screen demister long grille attached each end of the dash, undo centre screw on demist grille with posi bit and a spanner, finger on top - or remove windscreen!
12. pull out dash to reveal aircon unit and loom etc etc
13. undo various bracing struts etc and unbolt aircon unit BEING VERY CAREFUL TO NOTE WHERE ALL the tiny coloured vacuum tubes go.
14. disconnect loom from unit (carefully noting etc)
15. with another strong person, one each side, ease out the huge heavy unit
16. take it apart and replace evaporation coil
17. work back up from 15 to 1 !

Greg

 

not for the faint hearted you will have to achieve this state of undress to
get the unit out as well as the front seats and fiddly under bonnet work

 

Not that I'm planning on doing this anytime soon, but am I the only one thinking, what else should be done when the car has been dismantled to this degree?

 

In the interior, I think at least the following:

1. clean up all the earth points and protect with grease
2. clean up the firewall positive posts on their inside poles
3. renew the grommets where things go into the tunnel
4. remove the seats, all the carpets and sound dedening etc and protect/repair the floorpan
5. renew the heater matrix in the aircon unit as a precaution
6. renew the expansion valve on the aircon unit. Once in place it pokes into the engine bay through the firewall and is hard to get at
7. carefully clean up all the instrument pack contacts and earths, run an extra earth
8. separate all the loom plugs and clean them with a toothbrush and contact cleaner and put back together
9. change windscreen glass if it is needed, maybe.

Greg