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Expansion valve - how to replace

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by Wecandothat4u, Sep 13, 2024 at 7:06 PM.

  1. Wecandothat4u

    Wecandothat4u Junior Member

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    I've searched both Prius chat and Youtube and found nothing on this. Apologies if it is in plain sight and I am not seeing it. And this might not even be the problem, but we have high pressure of 350 with less than one can of freon after replacing the condenser with a brand new one. We've actually just replaced the engine and some other stuff, but this is one of the last issues. We're thinking the expansion valve might be the culprit. Where is it and how much must be disassembled to replace it? We have a parts car where the AC was working fine, so parts are right there. Thanks in advance.
     
    #1 Wecandothat4u, Sep 13, 2024 at 7:06 PM
  2. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    Not common as a DIY repair so there may not be many DIY info sources.

    But there is the OG factory repair manual- probably well worth the rent for a job like that.
     
    #2 Leadfoot J. McCoalroller, Sep 13, 2024 at 7:43 PM
  3. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    #3 ChapmanF, Sep 13, 2024 at 7:55 PM
  4. mr_guy_mann

    mr_guy_mann Senior Member

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    How long did you run your vacuum pump to evacuate the system before charging? What vacuum reading did you achieve? Do the radiator fans operate when the A/C turns on?

    Posted via the PriusChat mobile app.
     
    #4 mr_guy_mann, Sep 13, 2024 at 8:13 PM
  5. Tombukt2

    Tombukt2 Senior Member

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    Sounds to me like icing happening and clogging the system if it was ever able to run or you've got a kinked hose or something or some garbage literally in some passageway. Relegate this car to not summer duty they're so plentiful now You can get another one for near nothing with the air conditioner working at least in my area. You're taking the whole dash out of the car and taking the whole air conditioning evaporator heat box out of the car and their resides your expansion valve just like all the other older Toyotas with expansion valves they're in the evap box My experience is they rarely go bad unless they get trashed up from an explosion I had a 74 Corolla with a hang on air conditioning unit in 78 and 93 it was still running fine The air conditioning the car wasn't in such good shape but the air would blow snowflakes out the vent underneath the glove box It was a Denso hang on units with a Tecumseh type upright pump the old piston type. In any of my older Corollas all the way up through 97 never replaced the expansion valve in any of them and had very cold air and all of my cars because we live in the southeast USA and no air is not an option generally speaking. I've replaced some damaged evaporators leaking etc and much older cars than the Prius mostly Toyotas but not expansion valves matter of fact that unscrew the old expansion valve and screw it right to the new or add the evaporator right to the existing expansion valve no problem and they're not very expensive the expansion valves that is. That's just personal experience 47 years driving predominantly Toyota vehicles since the KE series Corolla.
     
    #5 Tombukt2, Sep 14, 2024 at 9:38 AM
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