My wife drives a 2002 LX 470, and it has 134,000 miles. Last September, the air conditioning quit and obviously that needed to be fixed. Of course one option would be to take it to a dealership, but I could just picture them salivating at what they were going to charge me. The problem was the AC compressor’s clutch was no longer working properly. Rockauto.com is generally my go-to source for parts.
Looking at the available options, it wasn’t going to cost much more to replace the 20 year old compressor with a new Denso unit (the OEM supplier to Toyota/Lexus) which included a new clutch, as opposed to just replacing the clutch itself. Due to the location of the compressor, it was going to have to come out anyway to service the clutch, so I went that route and ordered a new Denso compressor and a new condenser dessicant bag...
We removed the compressor, drained and measured the amount of oil in the old compressor, and made sure the new compressor had the exact same amount of oil in it when we installed it. The dessicant bag was replaced and we properly added R134A Freon. The system worked great, and I thought we’d have several years of trouble free service (the key word being “thought”).
This vehicle doesn’t get driven much and this past June my wife went on a trip to Montana and then to Washington state and… the AC system quit before she was even half way. Upon her return home it was determined the new Denso compressor had seized after only nine months and about 6,000 miles.
For compressor warranty purposes, Denso requires a new condenser be installed and the system be flushed. Okay, I can understand that if a compressor had an internal failure, but the old compressor was working fine. The clutch was the problem, and you certainly wouldn’t replace the condenser, or flush the system, due to a failed clutch.
I’ve always thought of Denso as a premium supplier of parts, and decided maybe we were just unlucky and got a bad one. I ordered a new Denso compressor and my friend and I installed it; this time with a new condenser and we flushed the system.
Because there would be no warranty coverage, we decided to disassemble the seized compressor and find out what had failed. Sure enough, one of the two cylindrical thrust bearings was fried. To me, that was very disappointing service from what I had thought was a quality parts manufacturer. I certainly hope the new compressor lasts a lot longer...
Pics:
What the cylindrical thrust bearing should look like (the good one).
The destroyed bearing.
Looking at the available options, it wasn’t going to cost much more to replace the 20 year old compressor with a new Denso unit (the OEM supplier to Toyota/Lexus) which included a new clutch, as opposed to just replacing the clutch itself. Due to the location of the compressor, it was going to have to come out anyway to service the clutch, so I went that route and ordered a new Denso compressor and a new condenser dessicant bag...
We removed the compressor, drained and measured the amount of oil in the old compressor, and made sure the new compressor had the exact same amount of oil in it when we installed it. The dessicant bag was replaced and we properly added R134A Freon. The system worked great, and I thought we’d have several years of trouble free service (the key word being “thought”).
This vehicle doesn’t get driven much and this past June my wife went on a trip to Montana and then to Washington state and… the AC system quit before she was even half way. Upon her return home it was determined the new Denso compressor had seized after only nine months and about 6,000 miles.
For compressor warranty purposes, Denso requires a new condenser be installed and the system be flushed. Okay, I can understand that if a compressor had an internal failure, but the old compressor was working fine. The clutch was the problem, and you certainly wouldn’t replace the condenser, or flush the system, due to a failed clutch.
I’ve always thought of Denso as a premium supplier of parts, and decided maybe we were just unlucky and got a bad one. I ordered a new Denso compressor and my friend and I installed it; this time with a new condenser and we flushed the system.
Because there would be no warranty coverage, we decided to disassemble the seized compressor and find out what had failed. Sure enough, one of the two cylindrical thrust bearings was fried. To me, that was very disappointing service from what I had thought was a quality parts manufacturer. I certainly hope the new compressor lasts a lot longer...
Pics:
What the cylindrical thrust bearing should look like (the good one).
The destroyed bearing.