Hey guys,

I got a slow refrigerant leak, and at this point I suspect it could be a bad compressor speed sensor o-ring.

Excuse the crappy pic, my car is a little low, so I was struggling with pointing the phone right

I gonna refill the system with a UV dye next week to see for sure.
O-Ring is only available in a complete set, from US. Shipping will be long and little pricy.
I think I can source one locally, but I need to know the size.
I could take mine out, but if it's damaged heavily- it can fall apart and compressor will be left sucking the road dust.

To sum all up- if you have a bad or spare GS430 compressor laying around- I would highly appreciate you taking the o-ring out and measuring it for me

Thanks

Hello,

The thing is that there is a number of variations of those sensors as it turns out, and without knowing the specific compressor model, it would be tricky to know. Take a picture of the spec plate on the compressor, there should be a Part Number that looks similar to "7SBU16C", that one is my best guess for what you have installed.

Instead of measuring the O-Ring on the sensor, try getting several different sizes in advance, they shouldn't be expensive, though I am not sure how parts system works in Europe. Just make sure to get the ones specifically for A/C Refrigerant, they are usually Green-ish in color, any other material will degrade quickly.

Hope this helps and best of luck

Hello Arsenii,

Thanks a lot for your reply, and yep, that's my new plan:
Got myself a box of 'em


My refilling appointment is tomorrow, I'll be trying my best to get them replace my o-ring. They usually aren't happy when you bring parts with you, but during the system evacuation- that truly will be a 5-minute job
So will see, I'll update the thread with results

By the way, Arsenii, since there’s still a high chance, that leak is coming from the main seal, and not the sensor- do you know if that’s something that I can generally source and replace, or would the entire compressor replacement be the only option?

Sorry for the delay..

There was time in in this universe when Toyota offered OEM Rebuild Kits for A/C Compressors, but in a brutal world where even inner tie rods are now sold only with the rack, no wonder those got cut at some point a while back..

You can still get parts for Compressors, the question is how far down the rabbit hole you are willing to go, and what kind of parts will clear your trust issues. Below is a Parts Catalogue of Santech components for what I assume is your compressor, the trouble is that it's the first time I've ever heard of them, and their website seems to be just about gone, so I have no idea what kind of quality they offer.



In short, if you can afford it, a Denso Rebuilt compressor may be a much simpler option, especially in the long run as Denso parts don't raise any questions ... yet.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

Thank you so much for such a detailed answer
The compressor would be way to go

An update on the actual situation:
System is charged (had only 300ml of refrigerant after last filling almost exactly year ago).
O-ring is replaced. Vacuum test said the very same thing as last time: "alles gut"
Right now it's hard to tell if that helped because.... strange things are happening

I can clearly see the hose 887123F041 is leaking like craaazy, the oil is pouring down it.




Yet, it won't glow in UV. At all

I took a pic in day-light to show better, but night time does not make any difference.
Still I am not scammed, since I can clearly see UV agent residues glowing bright-green in filling port. Even in day-light.


Dys make me confuzion.

Though it's now pretty clear that hose is leaky, and since OEM is discontinued and aftermarket offers 0 options- a used one is the only way to go
I found both "elstic" ones for 19 bucks each
I might also send them for a "rebulid" if they arn't charging 5678 Euro for that

By the way- here is the size of an O-Ring (around 19mm outside diameter, 1.5mm thick)

I am still struggling with identifying exact model of my compressor, so not sure if that's helpfull

And the old one looks perfectly good, so I am in doubt on any changes caused by replacement

Oh my god, I am soo dumb.. It’s crazy that I’m still alive, hehe
It’s not an oil, it’s condensation. I could swear the pipe felt hot to the touch
But that’s good, since I am not seeing any UV glow- issue might be resolved
I’ll drop an update if that changes

Welcome to Confirmation Bias, been there, done that..
But for real, if it were actual oil streaming down the line, the compressor would lock up even before all the refrigerant leaked out.

Well, for only 200 gram loss over a full year, it will have to be one long Vacuum Test to spot the leak, so no wonder it yielded no result.



Thanks for the notice, may be useful in the future.

There should be a plate somewhere on the side of it, here is an eBay listing that shows its location, should be right above said RPM sensor.

May be too late now, but did you check for any signs of corrosion on the mating surface? Sometimes if the aluminum starts to corrode and turn into a sort of dust, the O-Ring will have a tougher time creating a proper seal, though there is only one way to find out at this point..

Hope this helps and best of luck!

That was a little painful to read, but I hope it was at least a little fun to go through

I think the sticker went partially missing. After 10 mins of filming with a flash in a pretty awkward position I only managed to see a part of barcode with no text
When car is on the lift next time- I'll give it another shot

Unfortunately i was not replacing it myself, so had no chance of seeing the guts. But I hope they would've told me if anything was off in there

And after a bit closer look- so far so good
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I am pretty sure that you have 7SBU16C, as that is what matches with the Part Number listed in the Parts Catalogue for your car, but let's just hope that you won't need to find out.

At least the issue got resolved ... maybe for now ... but anyway, thanks for getting back and confirming!

A little update on the matter
Oil on the sensor was coming from all the way above, from leaky heads (now fully serviced ), trough the wiring harness, ending up where I saw it
So speed sensor was never the case, and o-ring, as I suspected, was perfectly good. I might bring the old one back in later, since I trust it more, then an Amazon kit

And since I am not seeing any glow under the hood- evap core must it be, and an exciting adventure of blowing up my entire cabin is taking place next spring.
The veeery ugly smell inside, after car seated for a while, is even more confirming that..

Sorry man. I feared I would be in that dash removal boat, but fortunately I need a new compressor. /s

Welcome to
AC Wars III, The Compressor Strikes Back

Bit earlier this week my car got on a lift, and I had chance to better examine stuff.
Oil on the sensor seems to be a wild mix of both a motor and ac oil


It glows, so as everything around it (entire front side of the engine covered with small drops), so I am pretty sure the seal got bad, and the spinning pulley just throws crap all around the place.
Ok, fine, but I am still having my evap core under heavy suspicion, due to the smell I felt after car had a couple weeks rest.
I wonder if there's an easy way to determine that for sure?
Condensation drain pipe had no glow, but I guess that's not very representative, since uv agent could be washed out by water..?
I am owning a boroscope, so maybe that's possible to get visual access to the core through the cabin filter compartment?

Critics are raving.

Could be that the Lockup Sensor O-Ring was a red herring all along, you may need to either take the Clutch Assembly off completely, or find a way to look under it to inspect the Main Shaft Seal, which is the most common piece to fail over time, there is no chance the Sensor O-Ring went bad again. Just be careful not to lose the Adjustment Washers for the Clutch when you take it off, otherwise it's a pretty straightforward process.

Right now you clearly have a Compressor Leak, that's where I would start, even if the Evaporator is leaking, either way the Compressor will need to be fixed.

A small FYI for the future, at least in US, EVAP is usually referred to an Evaporative Emissions Control System, which traps Petrol Fumes from escaping the Tank into the atmosphere, not the Evaporator for an AC system. Nothing major, I just got so used to an EVAP being referred to a Fuel System that it took me more than one time reading it to understand..

You can try collecting the Water coming out of the drain line to see if that will glow, but realistically, you will see Dye there only if the Evaporator itself is leaking, like the pipe between the fins, which is unlikely. To check the connections, you will need to pull the Carpet and/or the Glove Box to see if you can reach them.

Hope this helps and best of luck!

Yes, I am pretty sure about it.

True! But what I am trying to achieve - is avoiding the need for a second system evacuation. Charging is a little pricy, so would make since to fix all at once.

Was there couple weeks ago, my passenger servo started misbehaving, so I had to service it before it's dead. My luck is always chasing me, so of course it was the hardest-to-get-to one :|
Serviced all of them to not get back

So at this point I am thinking about purchasing this questionable device

Youtube videos say it's pretty good and sensitive. Should last for my one-time use
Do you think it worth a shot?

Sure, my bad, thanks for pointing that out

Thanks, and many thanks for your active input and assistance on the matter!