Air Con

[MadBaz]

After a bit of digging through the engine bay, I've found the cause of my a/c leak, The spring loaded coupling between the muffler and the evaporator return pipe has split and it wont rejoin. It appears that this has been repaired several times and with brute force. The flanged end of the evap pipe is now oval. I was wondering if anyone knows of any problems with bodging this, ie cutting off the flanges and using rubber pipe to bridge this. I would be using marine fuel pipe and as it's the low pressure side I don't envisage any problems. I think the bodge would be better than the original as there would be some flexibility.

[bigdave982]

Watching this one with interest as my a/c has a broken pipe from the back of the compressor. Thinking about bodging it like above as im more than reluctant to spend

[Nomolos]

Interesting question, R134 will go through any normal “rubber” pipe it would need to be the proper air con rated stuff as there is a barrier built into its construction that stops the gas getting out, ideally it also wants to be clamped onto the pipe using proper crimpers and couplers, anything else will be a waste of cash as your refrigerant will go quite quickly :blink:

 

scrap yard may be better got a few pipes for around the £10 mark.

 

best of luck

Edited September 4, 2011 by Nomolos

[MadBaz]

All fixxed, dremeled off the flange and flare, bridged with 19mm marine fuel pipe and stuck 2 jubilee clips either side, got it vacced, gassed and oiled at kwik fit and no problems yet.