It’s no secret.
PlanetDude isn’t JudithHarris, the OP.
A completely different light (besides calling the incident an explosion) would be put on the situation if the OP said “I just had my car in for some work involving the expansion valve” She certainly knows what they look like.But she did not say she just had the car in for work on the expansion valve, why would she leave this important part out but include the dramatic part of there being an explosion?It is exactly this type of stuff I am trying to teach the OP,leave out the drama but make sure you include the important details.
Dog, meet Bone.
I’m not sure I get the point of your comment. She had no idea what an expansion valve was until hers burst and left debris on the ground. She had the car in for AC work, but did not know what had been repaired initially. She picked up a piece of the debris and found a part number that she googled, which yielded the information that the remnants were part of the expansion valve, which she then mentioned.
What is an explosion except something violently bursting, which could be said to accurately describe what happened to her AC system. Even a line from our National Anthem describes “bombs bursting in air”, which certainly is interchangeable for “exploding.” Perhaps when people think of an explosion, they picture sticks of dynamite going off, cars blowing up in movies, buildings being demolished, etc. But I would consider an event violent enough to leave scattered pieces of something that is normally pretty solid strewn on the ground, to at least qualify as a minor explosion, even if her description was a tad dramatic.
Or perhaps I’m just feeling argumentative after a crappy day at work.
My point is don’t sensationalize, just stick to the facts. Remember other people read these posts and it is a diservice to use a cheap journalistic technique.“Exploding car” is something I expect out of the Enquirer.
Putting the word “Explosion” followed by a question mark in the title should indicate that she didn’t mean whatever might qualify for you as an explosion. Similarly with describing it as “cartoonish sounding”.
She never said “Exploding car”, and don’t be running down the Enquirer: “Vice Presidential Candidate, Mistress, Baby, Found in Love Nest”.
How are you enjoying your bone?
I can identify anything by the bits and pieces by finding a part number and typing it into Google. Which is what she did. This is no troll.
And, I believe there could have been an explosion sound of sorts. I've heard the steam-like sound of a large leak. If this part actually, umm, spontaneously disassembled, underneath the hood, I could absolutely imagine it sounded like a bit of an explosion, I had a pretty good bang come from a spontaneously failing compressor on my Plymouth (loud enough I could hear it easily at interstate speed.) It takes a while for the pressure to equalize after the car's off, the pressure may not have been equalized yet when this happened since the car was not off long.
As for driving it? I'd just pop the hood, look around the belt (or belts) and around the fan to make sure there's no "spare parts" (i.e. parts debris) on them, and make sure if there's A/C hoses loose they are not going to get caught in the belt or fan. Probably not a problem, but good to look. If it looks OK, turn the A/C off and fire up the engine. Be ready to turn it off quickly in case you missed something that is going to rub. If it sounds fine, it is, take it back to the A/C shop. With the A/C turned off, the compressor and stuff won't even turn so driving it back won't hurt the A/C or the rest of the car. They either didn't torque something in tight enough, or it failed. Either way, it's on them to fix it. Sure, you could shoot it with a .38 if it wasn't faulty, but clearly it was. I would suppose it had a casting flaw in it (like a crack or a void in the metal or something), this could cause big problems.Have you guys tried staying to the topic? 
This forum really pisses me off. All you guys to is argue and contradict with one another, it makes me want to pull my hair out. I’ve already reported this thread, its gone far enough. Maybe next time you “gearheads” will keep you heads out of your ***.
As long as the language is clean what is the harm? It is good to discuss how to relate what you see and hear about your car, many people make mistakes when they try and relate just what is going on. Sure some people can get annoying but it is only the internet and when you get too worked up (just in case you do) simply do not tune in. The value I see in this thread is a demonstration of how words can get taken differently by different people. Myself I do not think it does any good to exagerate but others find it entertaining. For our readers it is good to pay attention how you describe the problem to your mechanic. For other members (either just “hanger-ons”, “trouble- makers” or people that actualy contribute) it is only words and so what if the horse is long dead, they are only words but like I said you don’t want to give the public false ideas about what can happen with their car. I see clearing up and “busting” automotive myths to be one of the jobs of CarTalk, but I agree you do have those irritating few, rememember it is only the internet.
The man ‘doth protest too much’. I am afraid its far too late to redeem your self. Just let it go my man. It is tiring to read extraneous posts that benefits no one.
always get these post a week after they are posted for some reason. I think the OP bailed.
I personally think the condenser fan is not working on the Bug. The mechanic “juiced-up” the a/c system with too much refridgerant in an effort to cool properly. The high side head pressure reached extremely high pressure and “KA-BOOM!”
I think that the value you see in this thread is a personal best on how many times you can hammer the same tired point home: the OP heard something outside that sounded like an explosion from inside her house, and you repeatedly, repetitiously, and ad infinitum take her to task for it. YET YOU WERE NOT THERE.
Don’t you think you should be careful throwing around words like “KA-BOOM!”? Words can mislead people on this board, and have consequences, after all.
The problem with the high pressure theory is that this event happened while the car was parked and both engine and A/C were off. This means the prssure has equalized on both high and low sides and even an overcharged system will probably be sitting around 130-140 PSI. That’s nothing on an A/C system.
If the system were overcharged enough to cause this then it would not have been working properly on the way home as the OP stated it was.
One can argue over the semantics but an A/C system that suffered an instantaneous pressure loss due to a hose splitting, expansion valve blowing out, or whatever and left debris lying around can honestly be said to have suffered an explosion.
I’ve seen a couple of refrigerant cans come unglued over the years (blows the bottom out) and like the above, I’d consider those to be can explosions.
Misleading the board and mechanics. Overdramatizing has consequences. The explosions exist only in the creative mind of the writer.
I wonder why we don’t have an OP writing back what really happened,perhaps not so entertaining as claiming your car exploded? We get these posts with these outrageous claims (like a sparkplug that shot out like a rocket) we argue for days and the OP if they ever return at all never explains any reasonable questions posted.
If it was described that a tech opened the high side onto a 12oz can of refridgerant and the bottom blew out I would not have a problem believing this story,it has happened. What we have is a car sitting in a driveway, not running (I hope you guys understand this means system pressures equalized and roughly at ambient temp as far as pressure goes, meaning if it was 80 outside then system pressures were 80psi) that simply blows up and leaves pieces of the expansion valve laying on the floor. I have to say “Not likely”. I believe you have misidentified what you see laying on the floor and there was no explosion. To top it off you never say what work was done on the AC, just an o’ring replacement. Why don’t you let us know what happened as you surely know by now?
She’s probably sick of hearing people discuss what constitutes an explosion, ad-infinitum.
IBID.
If someone has little to no knowledge (professed or otherwise) of how something works - as do so many people now - they always come up with a dramatic explanation. Every tech (from computers to cars) knows the hardest thing to figure out is what the owner of said piece of equipment is actually trying to say, and converting that into your techie language so you can fix it.
If someone walked into your shop with a broken (insert your favorite piece of technology here) and told you a story about how it failed, would you go through this with them? I don’t think so. If you did, they’d walk away, and find someone who would listen and perform that techie conversion in their head without the belittling.
Is it really any surprise she didn’t come back? She just went to someone with pieces in hand, said help, and got her problem resolved.
Chase