Evaporator replacement

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$300 must be the evaporator core, rather than the entire assembly. We have had reports of parts -- door actuators -- in the evaporator assembly breaking, where the repair bill was $5000.

 

I have not done an evaporator core in a Prius. I did change it in my pickup truck several years ago. I started at 7AM in the morning and didn't have my truck together until 9PM the same night, so about a 14 hour job, including several trips to the auto parts store. That was after studying the service manual for a week.

First, you take out the steering wheel and column. Then remove the dash assembly, disconnecting all of the connectors, hoses and actuators. It is heart wrenching to see your vehicle sitting there with the dash removed, bare all the way to the firewall, and your dash (etc.) laying there on the garage floor.

So, you then disassemble your HVAC system and remove/replace the A/C evaporator core. While I was in there, I also changed my heater core, since the truck was fairly old and the heat wasn't working that great either.

So, after you put everything back together, you replace the drier and pull a vacuum on the system/fill it up with freon.

If I had to do it for someone else, $2K would be about right. For a car with 150K miles on it, I'd think hard about doing the job myself, but if I had to pay someone else to do it, I'd be thinking it might be time to trade it in.

 

165K here, just got hit with the same news. $300 for the part, and for labor about $800. This would be the first major repair on this car.

Could I buy some of that refrigerant filler from an auto store and just keep topping it off?

 

The problem with the AC on the Prius is it requires a special non-conductive lubricant. I can't remember the specifics on the Toyota lubricant but you absolutely cannot use traditional mineral oil/PAG oil in the AC system. If any gets in, then it's big dollars to fix it. If you use one of those cans of R-134 from the store it must be free of any oil. If you do AC work yourself you have to obtain the special lubricant from Toyota which is very expensive.

That independent AC guy mentioned by seilerts seems like the best option. The rest of us will be stuck with the dealer.

Scott

 

i have placed a photo of can can of ND-11 DENSO oil and the dealer list price and part# . If you keep filling your a/c up and letting it get low again you will finely burn up the electric compressor, then you will know what expensive $$$$$$ is!. I talk about some of the problems in my photo album.

What ever you do if you try it your self or let someone else do it for you, only use R134a with nothing added to it.

 

It's not to common for the EVAP to leak on a Pruis, but I have seen it a few time and some times when you look at the part you will see no oil stain at all. A lot of old timers always think you have to see a oil stain to have a leak (NOT)!!!. I'v seen more leaks at the condenser and more if your live near the sea on were they salt the roads in winter.
Another common leak point is were the lines connect to the condenser after a body shop has removed them to do some work and then put the condenser back but reused the old orings. For the $5 the shop could have replaced the new orings could save the customer from buying a new compressor a year or two later, and the customer will never know it was the body shop that worked on it before is why their compressor failed later.
Make sure you buy a OE EVAP if you have the job done. The after market heat exchanges do not have the same fins and micro Chanel tubes as DENSO. All tubes are not equal. When I go to China to the international air condition EXPO for part around the world, this is for parts sourcing. I get to see and meet all the MAGs of the parts we get back here in the states. I also get to find out what companies buy other companies parts and put them in their box and stamp another name on them. You would be surprised at how a $35 to $50 compressor can become $350 to $800 back here in the USA and a .75 to $2.75 pressure or TEMP switch can become $25 to $250 switch depending what OE dealer you but it from.

 

this may sound silly, but I can't afford to pay this immediately...

Do I run the risk of damaging it more if I continue running the AC for a few weeks (its in the 90's here)?
Can I mitigate the leak by running it at a low setting, for example 80 degrees? Will that cause less stress on the evaporator?

 

Not silly at all. Many people, myself included, would have trouble coming up with $1100 to fixed an issue. And that's just the estimate, the actual cost could be more.

I'll leave your actual question to the AC experts. I'll only add that it's a variable speed compressor so it would seem to me that running it at 80 would be less stress than at 70 but I'm not certain. I'd also think that the Prius would be "smart" enough to shut down the AC system if the refrigerant pressure (hence lubrication) gets too low. But again, I'm not sure. If it were me, I'd run with the AC off, but I live in Massachusetts, not Florida...

Scott

 

Yes it dose shut down if low , but only vary low and after a long time of running the a/c and a few times of refilling the a/c system if you get a few times the compressor starts to wear. Some times fast some times slow, it seems some have a little more luck the others its a gamble.
Hears a little tip, If the return suction line is not cool ( about min 60F or less ) then the compressor is not getting the cooling it needs.
Variable it is, but if you are running the system low on refrigerant it dose not know that, it is programmed to cool. So on a low charge weather you select 70 or 80 and your refrigerant charge is at 50% the sensors see its not cooling so lets spin up the compressor faster, sensors look again still not cooling were it want to see, so lets spin it faster and faster = more heat. As the low refrigerant charge can remove oil from the compressor out the small line at high velocity as that hot gas with oil cool and at the the bottom of the condenser where its mostly liquid and some gas with oil. Then the high velocity cool liquid travels to the expansion valve under high pressure hits the expansion valve small metering orifice, when it comes out the other end into a larger opening it flashes cold and the velocity drops. As the low pressure low velocity freezing gas with a little liquid at the beginning bottom of the evaporator starts to flow across and up the evaporator ( remember we are low on refrigerant charge ) with out a full charge the oil starts falling out of the air stream collecting on the walls of the tubes and falling back down. Not all the oil makes it out and back to the compressor. What is even worse is when someone use universal refrigerant oil that is a much heaver viscosity even has a harder time leaving the EVAP. Now add a little moisture it gets worse.
This is why I get so much work from shops who use old oil sitting exposed to air many time for many week or mounts, they use old machines with a charge accuracy of = or - 2 or 3 oz. That was ok 10 to 15+ year old cars with around 2 lb mark. Some of the machines are still been sold today as new, ( but they are cheap and they work ) you should hear all the excuses and reasons shop owners use why they still use them on customers cars and only use 1 universal oil for PAG oil. Then when a customer comes in with a pruis they use it on that car with the electric compressor to. Many do not change the dryer filter in the recycle machine so the pruis get heavily moisture laden refrigerant and moisture laden oil.

 

Two hour life after you brake the seal. the plastic bottle inside lets moisture go right through it. Ester oil should never be in plastic. Some of the ester oils I use have moisture color change indicator added to them. When i first pour them into a container they are clear. After one to two hours it starts to turn Orange, that's it **** GARBAGE***** !!!.

 

Looks like our 2005 Prius has started the cash sucking repair cycle at 115 k miles. It has been super reliable with zero failures to date other that a bad glass mat battery, which I replaced myself. Then last month the Hybrid Battery failed, and the dealer wanted my left arm to replace the battery assy. I managed to get the factory to pro-rate the battery down to me paying 75 % of their cost, or about $675 + labor, or about a Grand for what was originally a $4 000 repair. One week later the A/C blows warm air-we have to have A/C in Florida. The diagnosis was a leaking Evap core. The Repair quote -$1600 minimum in American dollars. Now is decision time-To get quotes from independent shops, and/or dump the car if independent garage costs are greater than x dollars. I know its the dealer labor rate that's driving the high dealer cost, but still !! What will fail next ????? My gut is to dump the car now, before it starts eating what could be a decent down payment on a new RV. Comments ????

 

Well, guess my dealer estimate wasn't as bad as I thought. Total of $1029 to replace evaporator core. I just got on here to see if that was excessive. Guess it could be worse, if I lived elsewhere!