Air conditioning compressor problem-psychotic owner

Pauciflora · 02-09-07, 02:43 AM

G'day Fellas,

I need some advice in relation to air conditioning compressors.

My wife and I are about to take our 17 week old daughter to South Australia for a couple of weeks R & R. South Australia is the driest state on the driest continent on earth. As you you can imagine it's also incredibly hot!!

So this week I took the 60 into the shop to have the air conditoning regassed. To my horror when I collected the vehicle I got a bill for $994 and the air-con still DOESN'T BLOODY WORK.

They said they had to replace a few parts and some seals and that it was then running well. Until the compressor blew a seal covering the motor in oil and die. So now I have to have a seal kit put through the compressor (Estimated cost about another $400).

I'm absolutely shattered. I'll be sleeping with one eye open for months. Even the baby hates me. If anyone has experience in replacing a seal kit in a compressor please feel free to offer me any words of advice. Is it possible? Do I need special tools?

Sorry about the length of this thread. I needed to let of some steam.

Clearly I did something terribile past life.

Cheers,

Ben

KLF · 02-09-07, 06:16 AM

Well, I'll tell you my recent experience. Sorry if this is kinda long.

The AC compressor in my '87 Hilux leaked oil from behind the clutch since I got it in 2001. I assume this is because the last 4-5 years of it's life it sat in a garage, hardly driven, and the PO never ran the AC, so the seal failed. All of the other seals on the truck were leaking from non-use, so it made sense. The AC would still frost the windows in August when I first got the truck, but it gradually started failing, till it would no longer cool a little over a year ago.

Last summer my GF and I were planning a long (2500 miles) trip in late July, so I knew AC was gonna be important. I had the remaining R12 sucked out of the system when I was getting my annual inspection in June, then pulled the compressor out. I pulled the clutch off, fought with the thing to get the old seal out, it was generally a PITA, but I couldn't find a shop that would do it, everybody told me to just get a new compressor. A new seal from Toyota was around $80 I think. I got it replaced with some help from a friend (the guy I actually bought the truck from), put it back together. I took the opportunity to pull the evap coil out from under the dash and clean out all the leaves and pine needles that had collected inside the heater box.

Then I paid a shop $150 to recharge the system, converting it to R134a at the same time. It worked amazingly well, better than it ever had. Life was good.

And now the compressor is leaking worse than it did before. The entire thing is covered with oil and dye. I'm pretty sure the AC will no longer run, but it's too cold outside now to test it.

I have no idea if we messed the seal up when we replaced it, it seemed straightforward, we followed the FSM instructions. It was very difficult to get the old seal out, that's for sure. As for tools, besides the FSM, I had to get a very stout set of snapring pliers, and you need a good vice to mount the compressor in, and a lot of patience.

In retrospect what I should have done was swapped in the spare compressor that I still have from my old '84 truck, it never leaked. Maybe I'll do that this summer.

soggy60 · 02-09-07, 09:56 AM

My seal is kaput too....

However, we ( y'all and, I know, me) will find the seal failed cause the compressor shaft wobbles too much (bearings ?).
The wobble will just beat up the new seal...

Pauciflora · 02-09-07, 05:42 PM

KLF. Thanks for taking the time to respond. I reckon I'll have a shot at doing the seal kit myself. Asking for advice on a North American website about air-con in February was probably never going to get much interest.

Thanks,

Ben