The local shop wants to charge me $800+ to change out my A/C compressor in my Saturn L200 (2001). My nephew (who is a mechanic) confirmed the compressor was shot. I want to do it myself and then take it to the shop to have it charged. I am ok mechanically. Any ideas or links to sites that can walk me through this???
Thanks for the help.
OG
A Haynes manual might be the best and least inexpensive method.
Be aware that you must also replace the accumulator and flush the system thoroughly before installing the new parts.
Also, do not get mad at the shop if for some reason you do a bad flushing job on this and the system winds up inoperative, either immediately or soon afterwards. Any debris in the system will clog up expansion valves or orifice tubes, plus the finer particles could wind up being recycled back through the new compressor.
Do not get mad if the shop will not guarantee the evaucation and recharging as they have no idea how well the procedures have been done before turning it over to them.
How does one flush the system?
I have been told that when I take the car back to the garage to have them charge the system (after I have installed the rebuilt compressor), they will suck out all of the debris when they hook up to draw a vaccumn.
Is this correct?
You need to disregard what star says, he doesn’t know a thing about automotive A/C.
Listen to Willey; he’s not only dead serious, but correct.
Compressor “burnout” is not applicable to automotive A/Cs and forget this “liquid line filter” business.
It ranks right up there with recently mentioned comments about housecalls to clean dirty condenser coils, overload relays, and the topper of them all; drain pans.
I guess a drain pan would apply if your car has automatic defrost and you’re keeping frozen meat and TV dinners in the glovebox.
To alter a line from a fairly recent movie: “And so it continues…”