Ian1ian1

So I bought my 10th Anniversary from Canada. Shipped it to Miami and the Canadian 10th AE's didn't come with AC. In Miami it's pretty much necessary. FWIW, inside the car there is an AC button but it doesn't light up.

Question is - Are the under the hood A/C components the same for Turbo cars as they are for NA? Meaning if I post an ad here looking for a complete AC system for an FC can I get one from any FC or does it have to be from a turbo (and from S4)?.

Also, would it make sense to get a new compressor or is there a more important new part to get the coldest AC?

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

I often sell complete a/c systems removed from parts cars.

Any FC a/c system will install into any FC...IF you have ALL of the parts of that a/c system and install them as a group. When you try to mix and match you get into trouble sometimes.

As far as I can tell, there are three compressors for the FC, two of which are sanden and 1 is nippondenso. The turbos got the ND and the NA's got the sandens (1 for s4 and 1 for s5). The line connections to the compressors vary in all 3 configurations. The mounting bracket on the engine is also different for ND and sanden. And sometimes the lower firewall connection on the evap core will vary from year to year. The parts catalogs at parts stores say that the drier can vary from year to year, but I've only seen one version for the FC.

The top aluminum pipe across the firewall, and the condenser core seem to be the same for all years.

So the lesson here is:

1) get the mounting bracket that matches the a/c compressor

2) the lines that attach to the compressor must match it exactly

3) the lower line that bolts to the evap core at the firewall must match it exactly

4) it's best to get everything together from a single car so you can be guaranteed it will all install 100% perfectly.

Landon303

iTrader: (25)

The T2 did have a different AC system as Kevin said- He did miss that there is a difference in appearance to the top, low side hard line which runs across the firewall between turbo & NA. Turbo had more bends in it, and was also painted black from factory, the NA was just left raw aluminum. If they're interchangeable with eachother, that I don't know.

You'll for sure need the T2 compressor (ND?) as that's presumably what mount is on the engine.

A new compressor helps, but isn't needed. You can get lucky sometimes (of the 2 cars I have that had totally 100% gutted AC, which I re-installed, one worked fine w/ a compressor I got on craigslist, and the other compressor had a leaking shaft seal so I went w/ a new/reman'd unit)

New you will want, assuming you're installing it yourself:

-Asian vehicle oring kit, available at parts store
-Expansion valve, located in the evaporator box (some people say you can get by w/ the old one, i've always replaced them tho)
-receiver/dryer, the "can" up by the coolant overflow tank. This is a MUST new.

I also clean my lines/ condenser/evap etc out before install. I hook up a pressure washer & blast thru it until the water coming out is clear. Then I empty it out, pour in some degreaser (purple power, or anything water based) & just let it sick. Sloshing it around helps too. Then blast it out again w/ the pressure washer, you'll see it dissolved alot of the residual oil sitting in there. From here I just blow it out w/ an air compressor, it gets *most* the water out, the rest will boil off when you initially hook the system up to vacuum.

Also be sure to read up on jackhild's thread on here about using duster or r-152a as a refridgerant! Much better than converting to r134a & using the old condenser

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

As long as the location and connection size/thread on each end are the same, the shape of the pipe in between really doesn't matter. I haven't found that it makes any difference which pipe you use, they all seem to have the same threads and connection locations on each end.

UNless you get a sanden compressor and the matching mount for the engine...there are many more sandens than ND's, and the sandens tend to hold up better than the ND's as far as I can tell.

More often than not the compressor is okay and it just stopped working due to pressure switch protection when the charge leaked out of the original system. You just need to grab the front pulley and see that it spins freely and without any noise. Then you grab the clutch and spin it by hand and listen for some gurgling sounds from the ports at the back, and also it should have moderate resistance to it, much more than the pulley itself.

Yes...although here they are simply sold as an "a/c hnbr oring kit" with about 80 o-rings of various sizes. Sometimes you have to buy 2 packs in order to get enough of the specific o-rings the rx7 uses. There are (IIRC) 3 sizes of o-ring for our system, and you'll use 4-5 of each one. Some of the packs only give you 2-3 of certain ones. Since I've started doing some a/c repair/install, I identified the individual o-rings that are used by the rx7s and bought bulk packs of those from mcmaster-carr for a couple dollars per pack.


As far as I am aware, you only have to change this if you are converting your system to run 134. I put freeze 12 back into mine, so I have never changed one.


Yes, you are supposed to change this part. Much more so if it has been open to atmosphere. IF it has been in a closed system you might be okay to reuse it.

The problem is that no parts stores seem to have the correct unit for the FC....at least for the FC's I've worked on. All of them listed in the catalog as correct for the year/model that I've checked have wrong-sized connection threads when compared to the one that actually came off the car.

So for this reason I have been forced to reuse them. I would say that the a/c performed normally even so.

I would strongly shy away from cleaning out system components using water. I would rather use something like mineral spirits, alcohol, brake/carb cleaner spray, etc. Those would all do a better job at removing the oil left over in the system from the previous charge, AND they would flash off and leave little to no residue. You could never get all the water out of the system (especially if you tried to flush the evap or condenser cores, or compressor) and the water would negatively affect the performance of the system later. Pulling a vacuum on it would not remove all the water, either.

Landon303

iTrader: (25)

if you look at a pressure/tempeture chart for water, water reaches a boiling point at ~70*F when under zero pressure (vacuum), so in theory, everything boils off, turns to steam & is sucked out via the vacuum.

RotaryResurrection

iTrader: (8)

But...the "vacuum" you pull on an a/c system is not an absolute vacuum like you would find in space. [This overlooks the fact that space itself is far from a perfect vacuum.] You are actually only pulling a partial vacuum on the a/c system, around 25-30 inches of mercury, since the equipment you have can't pull ALL of the molecules of atmosphere etc. out of the pipes to produce a true vacuum. By that same token it cant pull all the (evaporated, in theory) molecules of water out of the pipes either.

Either way, I see no reason to use water versus a cleaner that will immediately flash off and pose no risk of contamination of the system.