I'm looking at buying a '92 LS400. The seller is p/o'd because he can't get the A/C fixed. He has put a compressor, evaporator, condensor, etc on it and it still won't work. He said the mechanic he took it to Friday said it had low pressure on the low presssure side(?). He thinks he may have gotten a bad evaporator and/or condensor and wants to replace them for $700. I may not be perfect in my description so don't dog me if I've not reported accurately. My whole point is to see if any of you know of a "sneaky" type of problem with your A/C. Oh, he also had it switched to the "134" refrigerant. ANy Ideas????

 

just my 2 cents but i would just have the a/c taken out and get the windows tinted
hp and weight loss not to mention 700$ for rims/tint/ecu upgrade

 

I just got my A/C working, many $$$ later. It's hard to tell exactly what your problem is from what you wrote, but here's my story. My system practically had to be entirely replaced... First the condensor was replaced....recharged...didn't work. Then the compressor was replaced....didn't work. After that there isn't much left...after some diagnosis my mechanic told my the A/C had "grey death syndrome" not good. Anyway, he totally flushed ALL the lines in the A/C system, cleaned the expansion valve, replaced the evaporator, recharged the system, and it worked...finally!

The good news is that he tested the A/C output in the car with a lasor temp gauge and it read 31 degrees! It's cold in my car now

The bottom line is that you need to be persistant when it comes to fixing LS A/C.

 

hey all i have a 92 LS and the air goes out too this is the 2nd time, the problem is a o ring that melts because it is to close to the engine and then it blows because of the heat, lexus wants like $1500 to replace it, because they said that they have to take the whole thing out, well in most cases they don't, a place i know of does it for $200

 

where is this o-ring located?

 

it 's located inside the compressor some were, not that hard to get i think because they did it fast, but when that goes the feon can not stay in

 

I found a decent diagnosis chart at http://www.hychill.com/pdf/hcm_e.pdf. Perhaps something there will help you.

An AC system doesn't really have a whole lot of parts: compressor & clutch, condensor, accumulator/filter/drier, orifice, evaporator, and a hoses between all the parts. If every part works, then the AC works. But in real life it's more like, "if anything can go wrong, it will."

I have no idea what "gray death" is. If it means that you get some cooling but not much, and if your low-side freon pressure is low, I would suspect a plugged orifice. I can't guarantee it, but I'd sure look there first.

I wish you luck. My AC is still dead, but I'm working on it. It's almost a shame to fix AC in Minnesota, since we need it so little here.

Curt

 

Hey Curt, welcome to CL. It's nice to see a fellow Minnesotan here.

"Grey death" is when the lines of your A/C system are clogged by grey metal shavings, it basically means you're screwed. My receiver/dryer part had actually internally exploded which caused and the compressor core to get all messed up then all the A/C lines clogged from all this. That's the best I can describe it, I think that's it...I'm no mechanic

 

Here is a good link & a thorough description of AC systems for the laymen:

http://www.ackits.com/index.cfm?fuse...=Black%20Death

Here is a link to an inline filter to minimize the affects of it:

http://www.auto-air-compressor.com/filter.htm

damon

 

Excellent links

 

Earl et al,

I have also heard the rumour about the Nippondenso 10PA20C compressor that the LS uses:
.

"The problem with these compressors seems to be that the pistons are coated with Teflon and during failure, the resulting mixture of burned oil, Teflon, aluminum and refrigerant forms a coating throughout the system. This coating is resilient during flushing and becomes mobile again with heat".

I do not know the source of this quote or anything about its validity.

It does however have me contemplating the pre-emptive replacement of my 142,000 mile compressor in my 94!!

damon

 

BTW: Pace ( the link with the filter ) also has a great price on the NipponDenso 10PA20C Compressor
that LS 400's use.

like we used to write in a Junior High Annual, Keep Cool!! damon