Air Conditioning Issue / Leak in a horrible spot.

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T

tdiantonio

Joined
Sep 18, 2018
Threads
3
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54
Location
PA
Hi - I was wondering if anyone else has experienced an air conditioning issue with the 200 series. I have a 2013 LX570 - with 65K miles. The car has recently sat for the past 4 months while I was away. I went to drive it the other day and the AC is blowing hot/warm air. I took it to the dealer for oil, 65K service and to get the AC fixed. They just called and send there is a leak in one of the AC related lines that runs along the length of the vehicle and its going to be $1600 to fix. He said is was up under the fame and they have to drop the exhaust and other items in order to get to it and replace. He said the line has a small hole in it maybe from salt or road spray. In the the North East here. I am not 100% opposed to having them make the repair, its just that it sounds like a lot for the type of repair and I just wanted to see if anyone else has run into this. - Thanks
 
It's not uncommon in the 100 series. I haven't looked under the 200 all that much, but in the 100 Toyota mixed aluminum AC tubing with steel mounting and corrosion sets in over time. It's an expensive repair for the 100 as well. Those who don't want to spend the money sometimes cap off the rear AC lines.

$1600 at a dealer doesn't sound out of line given line replacement costs, vacuum system, them recharge, plus all the labor hours. It will probably be in the shop for the essentially the whole day.
 
LBridges said:
It's not uncommon in the 100 series. I haven't looked under the 200 all that much, but in the 100 Toyota mixed aluminum AC tubing with steel mounting and corrosion sets in over time. It's an expensive repair for the 100 as well. Those who don't want to spend the money sometimes cap off the rear AC lines.

$1600 at a dealer doesn't sound out of line given line replacement costs, vacuum system, them recharge, plus all the labor hours. It will probably be in the shop for the essentially the whole day.
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Thank you. I really appreciate it. He said it was going to be an 8 hour job at least. I was leaning toward telling them to just make the fix.

If anyone as any advice on how I could make the case to the wife regarding better justification to sell and buy a new heritage edition...I would appreciate it as well...lol. The thought crossed my mind for a brief moment after he told me the price.
 
It’ll be a daunting search but this is not the first report of this issue on here in the few years I’ve been paying attention. I don’t remember much in the way of details though.

Perhaps fluid film or another underbody coating to mitigate your vehicle dissolving into dust from the salt would help prevent issues in the future.
 
I had the same issue in my 08LX. There was a small leak very close to the rear AC unit. The dealer said the fix would need the entire rear unit to be replaced for $3900. All I did was recharge the system and it ran great, with ice cold air, for 2 years right till I traded it in earlier this year.
 
I replaced these lines on my 100 and yes, it was a PITA for sure. I used the factory lines but some folks on the 100 forum splice in replacement soft lines that do the job fine or as previously mentioned cap them off. The best was of course the retaining bolt that holds the line into the rear evap coil stripped out from corrosion, I had to disassemble the entire rear AC unit from the inside of the car, then drill that out and re-tap it. Half the mounts holding the lines just dissolved from corrosion. Hoping my generous annual Fluid Film undercoatings will prevent this same thing on the 200.

The price quoted doesn't seem that bad and I'd just have them do it and be done with it. Long term that's the best play. BTW 1600 is like 2 payments on one of these trucks.
 
m3fan said:
I replaced these lines on my 100 and yes, it was a PITA for sure. I used the factory lines but some folks on the 100 forum splice in replacement soft lines that do the job fine or as previously mentioned cap them off. The best was of course the retaining bolt that holds the line into the rear evap coil stripped out from corrosion, I had to disassemble the entire rear AC unit from the inside of the car, then drill that out and re-tap it. Half the mounts holding the lines just dissolved from corrosion. Hoping my generous annual Fluid Film undercoatings will prevent this same thing on the 200.

The price quoted doesn't seem that bad and I'd just have them do it and be done with it. Long term that's the best play. BTW 1600 is like 2 payments on one of these trucks.
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I could only imagine the level of frustration with having to go through that....hopefully it wasn't in the middle of summer.

Thank you to everyone who weighed in on this. I really appreciate it.

I actually decided against getting it fixed at this time. I am going to wait and get it fixed when I make some other mods to it. I ended up speaking with a good mechanic friend of mine who does my custom work on some of our other non-daily and less frequently driven vehicles. He offered to do the replacement for a much more reasonable price. I am going to have him replace the lines when I make some additional mods. I am planning to add sliders and new wheels w/tires once my KO2s wear down a bit more and just get it all done at once.

I hope I don't regret waiting....I drove it tonight to a work dinner and it was manageable with the sunroof open and windows cracked...but long drives are out for the time being.

Thanks again everyone. I really appreciate.
 
EverywhereBear said:
I had the same issue in my 08LX. There was a small leak very close to the rear AC unit. The dealer said the fix would need the entire rear unit to be replaced for $3900. All I did was recharge the system and it ran great, with ice cold air, for 2 years right till I traded it in earlier this year.
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The 3900 would have totally sucked for sure. I might try just recharging if I decide I can't wait to get it done.
 
bloc said:
It’ll be a daunting search but this is not the first report of this issue on here in the few years I’ve been paying attention. I don’t remember much in the way of details though.

Perhaps fluid film or another underbody coating to mitigate your vehicle dissolving into dust from the salt would help prevent issues in the future
Click to expand...

Thank you. I did do a quick search to see if I could find anything right away, but was in between work calls and didn't get the chance to dig deeper. Thanks for the tip on the fluid film. I am definitely going to look into that.
 
I’ve had to replace the line from the front to the cool box, which runs the same route as lines to the back. It’s not bad. Dropping the exhaust will give you all the access you need. Parts and a 6 pack, and a GOOD flare nut wrench.
 
To Charlie’s point, when I did the vortec swap in my 80 series I needed custom lines. A local shop was able to crimp together the parts I bought for the flex sections, but I got compression fittings online that I just tightened down to the aluminum parts after cutting to length for those flex sections to attach to. Worked great. you might be able to find a double-female fitting designed just for fixing leaks in aluminum AC piping. I’ll see if I can dig up my source for the fittings.
 
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