R129 Aircon Evaporator

[Chris Dixon]

Hi

I see from searching the forum that this question has been asked a couple of times before, but ominously with no reply. Anyway I thought I'd give it one more go ......

Has anyone changed the evaporator themselves or found someone to replace it at reasonable cost. It isn't worth spending £1500 to fix but it might make a good winter project!

Regards

Chris

 

[stats007]

I'm not sure I'd spend that much money on it - who quoted you that figure? Are you sure it's not the evaporator temperature sensor as this is a common failure item opn the digital climate system. What year and model car have you got?

 

[Chris Dixon]

I'm not sure I'd spend that much money on it - who quoted you that figure? Are you sure it's not the evaporator temperature sensor as this is a common failure item opn the digital climate system. What year and model car have you got?

Sadly it was blowing gas out of the airvents when I had a mobile aircon guy take a look, the bulk of the cost I'm told is in removing/refitting the dash. It's a 94 MY SL500.

 

[television]

Sadly it was blowing gas out of the airvents when I had a mobile aircon guy take a look, the bulk of the cost I'm told is in removing/refitting the dash. It's a 94 MY SL500.

Removing the dash is something you can do yourself, a you a handy type of guy, or are you one of those with a thumb in the middle of the hand.

Malcolm

 

[Chris Dixon]

Removing the dash is something you can do yourself, a you a handy type of guy, or are you one of those with a thumb in the middle of the hand.

Malcolm

Although my garage advised against it (too many other things that can be disturbed/broken in the process) I thought I might have a go, I've got the CD with the videos showing how to do most of it (although helpfully omitting driver airbag removal). I guess the problem will be at what point to involve an a/c specialist, as I wouldn't want to fit new bits, reassemble everything then find I've left a leak or something. My main problem will be lack of room, trying to do the work in a single garage.

 

[stats007]

Hmmn - can you live without aircon seeing as it's winter? The dash isn't too hard to come apart though will take a while - invariably some trim fixings will break being old. There are videos that show you most of the process and I can email these to you if of use. The evaporator itself is £400, however and I notice you have a few other problems - maybe you'd be better putting the car in auction and getting another?

 

[Chris Dixon]

Hmmn - can you live without aircon seeing as it's winter? The dash isn't too hard to come apart though will take a while - invariably some trim fixings will break being old. There are videos that show you most of the process and I can email these to you if of use. The evaporator itself is £400, however and I notice you have a few other problems - maybe you'd be better putting the car in auction and getting another?

Fundamentally it is a great car, nothing comes close for the money. Look at how many Porsche 993s are up for £20-25K with "aircon - assume not working". My problems are fairly trivial. Personally I can live without the aircon, and with the cloudy/split soft top windows, which I will if I can't fix myself/cheaply. It is definitely not worth spending £2K to get them sorted by a garage, but pardoxically if I changed the car I'd need to spend a lot more than this to get one with no current problems and still risk incurring that sort of expenditure within a year or two. Mind you a late model, low mileage 129 SL500 for £20K with a cast iron warranty has got to be tempting!

 

[stats007]

You won't find an R129 with a cast iron warranty! The problem is the things you mention are not cheap to fix - sellers often pass them off as minor which is a common problem with R129s. Cheap cars are never cheap! If you're even in two minds I would pass it on and buy a post '96 car - there are plenty that have been cossetted and want nothing doing.

 

[television]

There is something to be said for a car that you know, re doing the work there is nothing that should break, the Air bag is no problem if you follow the safety rules for them, even with the steering wheel off, any chance of just rolling the car a few feet out of the garage, you only need the front half out. Allow on day to dismantle and one day to put it back, you can even have my phone number if it would help.

Malcolm

 

[stats007]

You're right Malcolm - but you 'know' a car after you've fixed any problems! Always better to buy one that doesn't need any work IMO.

The air vent clips have a habit of becoming brittle. The instrument cluster can be a pain sometimes - as can trying to get the wood centre console trim back over the shift lever surround. The vaccuum hoses also have a habit of splitting when disconnecting - as do door card clips; not that you need to remove them in this instance. The interior A pillar covers are a bu**er to get back on as well - probably need to do this with the dash tweeters.

Also cover the wood with a blanket or similar in case you drop a screwdriver.

 

[television]

You're right Malcolm - but you 'know' a car after you've fixed any problems! Always better to buy one that doesn't need any work IMO.

The air vent clips have a habit of becoming brittle. The instrument cluster can be a pain sometimes - as can trying to get the wood centre console trim back over the shift lever surround. The vaccuum hoses also have a habit of splitting when disconnecting - as do door card clips; not that you need to remove them in this instance. The interior A pillar covers are a bu**er to get back on as well - probably need to do this with the dash tweeters.

Also cover the wood with a blanket or similar in case you drop a screwdriver.

I wont argue with you, you bring up some very good points, if only life was like the guy on the film, his white coat isnt even dirty.

malcolm

 

[stats007]

There's probably an 'outtake' set of videos for that chap! I notice he doesn't put it back together on tape...

 

[Chris Dixon]

Better the devil you know vs. buy a better one!

A personal choice - when I bought mine the aircon worked and so the only known issue was the hood windows. I could spend another £5-10K on a "perfect" car which develops similar problems down the line, which will still depreciate down to £7-8K territory over 3 years. Mine is a second car and will only do a couple of thousand miles a year and ought to hold its value, so on balance I should keep it. I do like the later ones with the 5 speed auto, but these have their faults too.