Air Conditioning Part II

This weekend I received an unexpected gift from a friend. Around 9:00 am he texted saying he was available to help me replace a section of AC pipe on my Land Cruiser. We've been trying to connect on this for about two months, so I cleared the rest of my day.

This is a continuation of my post from quite a while ago. October 17, 2015 to be exact. That post was my compendium to that date of the saga of cold air in the Land Cruiser. As you well know, no story is truly ever over and I have more to tell. Buckle up.

First let's recap. At the end of that post I had just experienced another failure of the AC compressor. I was $1435 into that process and I was a little discouraged because I didn't have much to show for it. My assessment at the time was that if I wanted to carry on down the rabbit hole, the next step would be a new compressor.

Just like Judy Hopps in the movie Zootopia, I don't know when to quit, so I pulled the trigger. Mind you, I didn't do it right away. One of the reasons this has been such a drawn out process is that up here in the Puget Sound area, the season that you really need AC is very short. That last post ended in October. AC is a very low priority in October.

According to my order history on Rock Auto, I ordered the new AC compressor in June of 2016. So I went from October 2015 to June 2016 without it. Like I said, low priority. By this point I was pretty good at swapping it out, so it only took me a little while to get it done. It cost another $220.

Current Total:  $1655

But there was a hitch. This was the first time I had to go back into the system without all the refrigerant having leaked out. I was about the learn about system evacuation (doing it on purpose anyway). That meant more tools. My friend and I decided to split a refrigerant recovery machine. My share of all that tooling was about $225.

New Total: $1880 (But we got new tools)

Once again I was back in business. There were still some issues, because after all, I'm still a n00b at this, but the bottom line was I actually had cold air.

This time my repair appeared durable. The days strung together to form weeks and pretty soon months had gone by. And then a year. A whole year. Then, in the 13th month, the air got warm again. A very slow leak had finally gotten to the point where the system wouldn't run anymore. If you're counting, 13 months from July is August. Not the time you want to lose AC. Fortunately, it was the end of August and September was just around the corner. July 2016 to August 2017 is a pretty good run, especially considering my track record.

Due to my problems I've developed the habit of charging the system with a refrigerant that has dye in it. The dye allows you to trace out the system and find the leaks. This one turned out to be a very small crack where the pipe rubs against the firewall. Guess which pipe it was? If you guessed it was the last pipe that I hadn't replaced you would have guessed right. I mean, it only makes sense.

When I had done work previously I eyed this pipe and prayed under my breath that I wouldn't have to ever touch it. It wound its way under the brake booster, behind the main engine wiring harness, and around the heater lines. To get it out I would have to open the AC system (obviously) as well as the brake system and the cooling system. This is a very challenging repair. I was able to buy the part right away from the local Toyota dealer. It was $85.

Final Total: $1965

Now it's May 2018 and the system is intact and functioning well. In the picture below you can see all the parts of my Land Cruiser's AC system. The ones shaded with red are the ones I've replaced. Basically, I've replaced all of it except for the condenser and a few short sections of pipe here and there.

I am, however, very encouraged by the current state of affairs. The system is running really well. In fact, the entire truck is running really well. In the last year I also replaced the rear brakes ($250), installed new brake pads in the front ($60), added air suspension to the rear axle ($120), and replaced all the shocks ($400, which I thought was a great value). The only part of that done by a shop was the shocks. I had them do it because I knew those were going to be a pain. Based on shop estimates I got, I saved about $800 doing it myself. I also got that satisfaction that can only be won by scraping your knuckles a few times.