I bought my car a year ago and A/C never blew cold bc it needed to be recharged. Well Ive not got around to converting it and charging it so ive decided to pull it. does anyone know where a good writeup is on how to remove it, or could someone briefly describe it?...

 

Get it done at a shop if you care about the environment .

If not, I would assume you just start unbolting it VERY slowly. Nothing would suck more than ripping it off and having very very cold gases freeze the **** out of you.

 

Mine had no gases in it, I guess they had leaked out. But if you want to do the illegal thing, there's a valve stem-looking thing on one of the a/c lines on the passenger side of the engine, you can push the stem and let the pressure out (like letting air out of a tire). As for everything else,

The compressor is held on with a few bolts, I can't recall how many, 2 or 4, but easy to remove. The lines that go around the engine bay can disconnect at certain points, but you can cut them if you want. Disconnect them from the firewall on the passenger's side, and it's advisable to cap the tubes coming from the firewall (mine filled up with dirt). You're going to have to remove the panels that are in your hood latch area, to access the radiator-looking thing that's between the actual radiator and the oil cooler (evaporator, I think). You don't have to remove the oil cooler, or even disconnect it, as I've read elsewhere. Just remove the small brace that your hood latch is attached to, and remove the evaporator through that space (4 bolts hold the evaporator on, I think). There's also a small canister (condensor edit: no, I think the condensor is under the dash) that you'll have to remove, near the passenger side of the front of the car, in front of the radiator. 2 bolts hold it on, I think. The hardest part for me was the a/c line that goes from the compressor, under the battery tray, to the evaporator. It's held down with a clamp somwhere under the battery tray, so you'll have to remove the tray to access it and remove it (I ended up breaking my battery tray due to rusted bolts).

Weigh everything you remove, just for ***** and giggles.

 

^sorry, I got beat to it

This is illegal: don't do it. That said, there are two bleed valves on the refridgerant lines (and there may be one on the compressor too, I don't remember exactly) that work like the valves on your tires. You (with a tool obviously) need to press on them to release the refridgerant, after a few minutes, most of it is out. Be careful tho when removing the rest of the components, as there may be little pockets of liquid left in the various parts. Also, unless you want to rip out the dash, part of the system (can't remember the exact term, but its like the heater core) is still going to be left in the car.

 

From what I've read, if you remove the a/c stuff behind the dash, but are going to keep the heater/defrost stuff, you have to re-route some ducts or something back there, not quite sure.

 

i wasnt goin to remove all the ducts and stuff just the stuff off the engine, will the heater still work though?...

 

Everything else will still work. I just did the same thing 2 weeks ago!

 

Well if ur on nopistons.com, here is the full write up on how to remove ur A/C
http://www.nopistons.com/forums/inde...howtopic=25124
And yes with ur A/C removed the heater will still work.

 

does the PS have to come off with the AC?...

 

no not necessarily mister clint lowe

 

I would recommend having a shop remove discharge the system first ESPECIALLY if youre kinda new and you just want to clear up your engine bay.... and heres my reason.
If you just disconnect hoses, it will ******* blow up in your face and spray refrigerant all over the place if its fully charged. I knew it sprayed **** into the atmosphere, but I didnt know it sounded like a bomb in the process of doing so, until recently. Somebody in my automotive tech. class disconnected an AC line somehow, with a fully charged system, and made a huge BANG noise and blasted refridgerant everywhere, smelling up the whole shop.
I dont think anybody really got hurt but its possible. It will really be an unpleasant suprise.
Just giving my 2c's

 

Get the system discharged at a shop and go from there. The driver's side of my engine is now about as bare as it gets and I also took out all the metal plumbing lines for the compressor. Really, it does help tidy up the engine bay a bit.

 

i know my system doesnt blow cold, hasnt for about a year. could it still be charged?...

 

It could still be charged. I just depressed the valve thing very quickly with a screwdriver or something to see if mine was still charged. If anything came out, I would probably have taken it to a shop. Entire system was dry though.