Ok I finally got my 98 gs 400 to a/c shop To see why my A/C wasnt working. It was completely out of freon so I was hoping for just a recharge, but I wasnt that lucky. They said when they hooked it up to vaccum they found a gaping hole in the condensor. They said they would have to change that before they would even be able to see if there were anymore leaks or anything else wrong. They quoted me around 500 dollars. I am very good at working on cars so I was thinking of doing the condensor myself. It is like 169 bucks. That will save me alot of money. I know its in front of the radiator, but how hard is it to replace and are there any Diy or special tools needed?

 

it' s pretty easy. you'll need some new o rings for the fittings but aside from that, nothing special. i don't remember if you have to pull hte radiator, i'm pretty sure you do, but that's easy. either the rad. or bumper cover has to come off, i'ts been a while....
lube up the o rings with some wd40 before you install the fittings, just dont get any wd inside the lines or condensor.

 

Ok I was wandering how the lines come off if there held on with a hex bolt or what? I may wait till you do the timing belt. Wont the radiator have to come off then. That would kill 2 birds with one stone. Let me know what you think.

 

hard to beleive nobody has replaced this. I had an idea to try some jb weld. slam me now, but i think its worth a try. They have used this stuff to seal up high preasure pipes with success. I really dont have nothing to lose. I would just be doing this temporarilly just to make sure there are no other leaks in system or anything else wrong. I would hate to put 169 dollars into a condensor and find out I have a compressor bad as well.

 

still no one answers this. I know someone has done this before. Looks like I will have to take bumper off being its in front of radiator. Please I need help asap so I can figure out which route to go..

 

Hope this helps

 

that was perfect. seems pretty simple. wander why they wanted like 300 dollars in labor. Now i need to know if the wd40 19psi mentioned is the compressor oil. also says to ad same nd- 8 oil to condensor. I would think when they add the freon it would have that oil in it. and if i need to get new dryer or just use old one. I dont know where to get dryer at. I will have to check advanced or autozone.

 

where do you get all these pdf's for repair on gs. What does everyone think about using jb weld? to fix hole

 

Jb weld won't work. I actually tried it. I also tried buying an aftermarket one on ebay, it worked pretty welll until it started leaking from the connectors. So I bought a used OEM one off of ebay and its been working sweet ever since then.

 

wd is not the compressor oil. don't spray it in the system. just use it to lube the o rings. don't add any oil. when you get the system charged, tell them you changed teh condensor and it will need more oil. drain the oil out of th eold condensor and save it so they know how much to put back in.

 

ok thats what I thought. The shop is strickty an Hvac shop for cars so they should know about adding the oil. I will remind them though just in case. what about the dryer. It says in manual that you have to change the dryer out. Will my condensor come with a new one or not? Im going to get one from autozone or some place like that.

 

the dryer is also known as the receiver/dryer. it's a cylindrical aluminum part with a line in and out. it m ay even have a pressure switch on it.

they say to change the dryer because that's usually what cathces all the junk and foreign objects in a a/c system that has a problem. since you just have a leak, i wouldn't worry about it.

 

ok. when i look on rock auto it looks like a long fish net. like a filter on a oil pump.

 

oh i know what yo're talking about. y up, basically a filter. up to you if you want to change it. i think that thing is actually in the condensor, so you might as well change it. not sure if hte new one will come with a filter or not....