A/C question

[Jeremy4601]

Apologies if this post is in the wrong category.

Having a/c issues. Obvious leak as a charge would only last a day or two. Paid a shop to diagnose it. Rear evaporator is busted and leaking. Quote was $1000 (everything seems to cost $1000 these days). Hot as it is here on the gulf coast right now, I quickly scooted on down the road to start googling and YouTubing. Found some good DIY videos but it still looks daunting to me. I found another shop that will do the work for $400. But I have to buy the evaporator… which brings me to my next hurdle. I’m finding several different evaporators for my Tahoe. I don’t know which is the correct fit and the shop says they have to dig out the old one to know, then they may not be able to get it. Apparently getting parts is a problem?

Anyone know of a way to determine which evaporator I need w/o tearing this thing apart first? I’ve got a 2002 LT Tahoe / 5.3.

 

[swathdiver]

Apologies if this post is in the wrong category.

Having a/c issues. Obvious leak as a charge would only last a day or two. Paid a shop to diagnose it. Rear evaporator is busted and leaking. Quote was $1000 (everything seems to cost $1000 these days). Hot as it is here on the gulf coast right now, I quickly scooted on down the road to start googling and YouTubing. Found some good DIY videos but it still looks daunting to me. I found another shop that will do the work for $400. But I have to buy the evaporator… which brings me to my next hurdle. I’m finding several different evaporators for my Tahoe. I don’t know which is the correct fit and the shop says they have to dig out the old one to know, then they may not be able to get it. Apparently getting parts is a problem?

Anyone know of a way to determine which evaporator I need w/o tearing this thing apart first? I’ve got a 2002 LT Tahoe / 5.3.

Get the last eight of your VIN to Rene and he can look it up. @915_Tahoe

I only show one rear evaporator core for your vehicle, 12477713/16-62105

I'm good, Rene is better!

With a set of manifolds and a vacuum pump from Harbor Freight, you can do this repair yourself. Also had to buy an adapter to better puncture the cans to add refrigerant from Amazon or O'Reilly Auto.

 

[915_Tahoe]

Apologies if this post is in the wrong category.

Having a/c issues. Obvious leak as a charge would only last a day or two. Paid a shop to diagnose it. Rear evaporator is busted and leaking. Quote was $1000 (everything seems to cost $1000 these days). Hot as it is here on the gulf coast right now, I quickly scooted on down the road to start googling and YouTubing. Found some good DIY videos but it still looks daunting to me. I found another shop that will do the work for $400. But I have to buy the evaporator… which brings me to my next hurdle. I’m finding several different evaporators for my Tahoe. I don’t know which is the correct fit and the shop says they have to dig out the old one to know, then they may not be able to get it. Apparently getting parts is a problem?

Anyone know of a way to determine which evaporator I need w/o tearing this thing apart first? I’ve got a 2002 LT Tahoe / 5.3.

Gm#12477713 $369.48
Discontinued

 

[swathdiver]

Thanks Rene!

 

[S33k3r]

My mechanic wants $1k just for the labor, and about $600 for the parts. And I know he is not scamming me. Then I found videos on YouTube where they do some cutting and come in from the front. Let me know if you want me to share them. I am uncertain what I am going to do at this point, myself.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

The evaps are a dime a dozen at junkyard. You can get practice taking apart too if you go there. Nobody ever pulls evaps... but if part number is no more than you can get it there.

Have a hard time believing they don't make the part anymore, possibly just changed to a different part number. However, if you need you can call ABC auto salvage in Tucson. They have parts pullers & I think they mail parts out too. I pull my stuff there. They easily have four of them in their lot alone.

Do you have rear heat as well as AC?

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

My mechanic wants $1k just for the labor, and about $600 for the parts. And I know he is not scamming me. Then I found videos on YouTube where they do some cutting and come in from the front. Let me know if you want me to share them. I am uncertain what I am going to do at this point, myself.

You definitely don't have to cut ANYTHING to fix. I see some guys possibly cut for front evap but isn't necessary. If somebody is cutting up stuff in tutorial then it's a bad tutorial I'd not do what they say.

Can pull front in a few hours. Rear is probably 30 minutes, much easier. Pull plastic trim panels off and air handler is right there on rear passenger side. It's been a while since I did it but has some metal clips (screws too?) and top comes off air handler. You have access to evap then).

 

[S33k3r]

Mine is behind the dash, in the front. The "proper" procedure" is to pull the entire dash. The hack "procedure" is to cut through the glove box brace, then the plastic enclosure for the core, pull out the core, put in the new one, reseal the box, and reinstall the glove box (minus the part of the brace you cut out).

 

[THarber]

Its available on Amazon for $360.

 

[Matthew Jeschke]

I'm actually curious where exactly leak turns up on the rear evap. The inlet, outlet, in the heat exchanger portion, on the fittings?

I have a pesky leak in my AC system I cannot locate and maybe it's in same place... Mine is fairly slow though. Leaks out over course of couple months.

Mine is behind the dash, in the front. The "proper" procedure" is to pull the entire dash. The hack "procedure" is to cut through the glove box brace, then the plastic enclosure for the core, pull out the core, put in the new one, reseal the box, and reinstall the glove box (minus the part of the brace you cut out).

Yeah I wouldn't follow that tutorial where he cuts the dash. I watched that one. It's not that hard to pull the dash. You have the trim panels on outside which all pop (and screw off). Then some controls in middle of dash, and fuse panels on both ends. Remove the control panels / head units, the fuse blocks pop out (they're just clipped in).

Afterwards, get a steering wheel puller (optional) and pull the wheel. Takes all of maybe 5 minutes if even. Now your dash / core support can be pulled out of the way. You have some more computers and a metal bracket on both sides of cabin. Unplug the computers, unscrew the metal brackets. This reveals the main support, a big metal bar. I am not 100% sure if you need to remove that, I don't recall. However, it's just a couple bolts and fastened to the A pilar. This all takes a couple hours. If you've never done it before then it's daunting. There's a method to the madness though. Screws for plastic are all same, screws for pillars are all the same, etc. Once you see that, it's hard to mess up. The hardest part will actually be getting the screws / bolts undone from front of firewall which support the air handler. I'm not 100% sure if you can leave those in and take top of air handler? I think you can... If so, this isn't too bad a job to do. If you do remove the air handler, swap it out with an earlier 2001 model... The newer ones don't have cabin air filters.

There maybe a way that's easier yet to pull dash leaving it assembled. I think I saw somebody do that once. If you're paying to have somebody do it though, I'd want them to do it right.