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lech auto air conditionin

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Prius a/c condenser, what it looks like inside. This is not grandpa's old CHEVY or FORD. This is why you never reuse a condenser after a compressor burn up. The small metal flakes most of them never make it out the other end of the condenser. When you pull out the dryer shock and filter you may only see a tiny amount of metal and on cars with piston type a/c compressors ( piston ring material ) most of it get stuck in the chambers between the flat cooling tubes and in only some of the tiny passages, the others will remain unplugged. That's not all, in fact the tiny shavings of metal may have to pass the condenser 3 to 4 times back and fourth to get out the other end. The refrigerant just dose not go in one side and out the outer in one pass. This is why a TECH at a shop may pull a filter and never see metal ?. Then this is OK ? (RIGHT? )!!. I hope I don't need to answer that now..... Back when I was a teen working with my dad we only had one condenser type with copper large round 3/8 inch tubes, vary easy yo clean out with anything , paint thinner, gasoline (vary dangerous) , alcohol, solvent, hot water high pressure steam cleaner. You name it , it worked. The last 20+ years is another story, when they first started to introduce serpentine condensers, this is when all the trouble started in the A/C area of automotive TECHs, but only for the ones that did not know. Now with the introduction of the newer high efficiency condensers this is even a bigger problem. But of course all TECHs and shop owners know all this RIGHT?. When they took a few years of high school auto class ? maybe when they took that $13,000 to $21,000+ two year Automotive TECH Trade School ? maybe after the one day to 4 day TECH seminar that their employer sent them to ( don't hold your breath!) Hopefully at least they took one of the good City College two year AS or BS automotive courses, that is just enough to get the new TECH so he or she dose not break too many parts and cost the boss too much money to train them. Yes and there are many other resources to. ***WAKE UP CALL!!!*** There is no training or requirement to be a mechanic or a owner of a automotive repair or body shop in California. There are many good shops and TECHs but there are a lot fewer now then the was just a decade ago, its been on a decline over the last 30 years. Over the last 15 years I have been removing the names of good shops off my list of good ones. Back to the condenser ( DO NOT REUSE A CONDENSER AFTER A COMPRESSOR BURNUP!). DO NOT TRY TO FLUSH IT OUT!.

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