What would you do IF you had to replace your A/C evaporator-core?

I'd have to know the cost, the car value and condition, and of course, my options. idk where you live, but I wouldn't be happy without a/c.

 

I have such vehicles . They driven during their respective seasons. Easy enough. In a pinch they can be driven by someone wanting to. Just not me

 

It's a pretty expensive repair. This is one of those cases where the car was just not designed to be repaired. To swap this out the entire dash has to come out. The evaporator is right in the center, there is no short cut. So if you have to pay for labor it will be $$$. The replacement part isn't cheap either.

We had our evaporator fail while it was under warranty, one of those "buy our carefully inspected and high quality used Toyota and get 90 days warranty on everything" deals, so the dealer fixed it. Eventually, after many trips. Even they screwed up the reassembly, forgetting to plug in one of the actuators, which I didn't realize until quite a while afterwards when the air flow could not be redirected.

The thing is, in a hot climate a Prius without A/C is not only a death trap for the occupant, it would also be a death trap for the HV pack, which would be forced to run at much too high a temperature. So if it were mine I would either have to repair it or junk it. Since I'm retired and have the time I guess I would fix it, making it a roughly $1000 repair (the part plus paying an A/C shop to pump out any remaining refrigerant, and charge it back up again later. Come out $5000 or more head versus scrapping it and buying another used car.

 

More hours than I'd like to spend on the issue time wise .

 

Then if I'm going to do that the car needs to be real nice and we're going to do the damper motors and all that nonsense is down there while we're doing this so never to be visited again . maybe for an 04 05 original nightshade nightshade

 

As I recall when the dealer was working on ours (which would lose all of its refrigerant quickly) they first did a refill (which went poof), then they replaced either the high side or low side pipe (don't recall which, it still leaked). At that point I think they came to the conclusion that since it wasn't leaking any place they could see it must be leaking somewhere they couldn't see - so the evaporator. There must have been dye in it by this time and they may have seen dye coming out the condensation tube. Is there dye in yours? Will it work long enough and well enough to get some condensate out? Having the dye come out there is a pretty definitive sign that refrigerant is leaking into the air within the evaporator. There are refrigerant detectors which helps with this hunt, but it isn't a common tool for a home mechanic to own.

 

stop leak could and probably eventually would screw something else up.

The safest next step would most be to have somebody put (the right) dye in the system, probably with more refrigerant if it has all leaked out, so that you (or they) will have a positive way of seeing where the leak is. UV flashlight and UV safe glasses. If the right equipment and dye is used it won't damage anything. Maybe you get lucky and find a leak at one of the O-rings, or less lucky and the dye shows up in the condensate line and maybe some other place too. In any case, at that point you know where the problem is.

 

Mechanic's hourly rates around Los Angeles are reportedly $150 and up. These days only really short jobs come in under $100, fixing a tire puncture, changing an air filter, things like that.

 

If that diagnosis is being done by somebody who knows auto a/c and is equipped with nice things like an ultrasonic leak detector it is probably money well spent.

Think about it, $250 to know where the leak is vs. all the guessing and hoping?

After that, I'd attempt to fix it myself and then take it back to them for evac & refrigerant charging.

 

Well sure, we all hope it's going to be self-evident, and sometimes it is.

But when it isn't, it sure helps to be in touch with a good diagnostician.

 

would it be worth it to just cut a hole in the dash to access the evap core vs. junking the whole car?

 

That would be a very big hole. After the sawzall (or whatever) was done, how would you put the MFD and radio back on the car?

 

Gen2 evap leaks are common and its at least $2k to fix it.

From a diagnostic standpoint you put dye in it, charge it up, run it to create condensate and look for dye in the condensate. A big leak might be found with a refrigerant leak detector at the vents, but they work best directly on the coil.

Having somebody with experience to do it is highly recommended. Around here that is not the dealer. Too much risk of breaking parts or failing to plug something in requiring another teardown.