Write-Up: AC Compressor & Clutch Replacement

I'm about to order a bunch of stuff from amazon so I'll get the "Super Saver" shipping which makes up for the $2-$3 difference in price.

I can't believe how much stuff you can find on Amazon now a days.

VJD2 wrote:

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I can't believe how much stuff you can find on Amazon now a days.

I know, it almost like eBay now! That's where I got my oil-pressure sending-unit socket, tranny cooler, tranny-pan drain-plug, and the special cable-operated pliers for the factory hose-clamps... all in one "super saver" order.

Right? I think its better than Ebay at this point! I can't believe how many times I punch in a part number and it pulls up the part and at a great price most of the time. Crazy!

I got the job done this weekend and am happy to say I now have cold air! Heres what was done and some pics that might help. I guess you can call this one a write up!
Before you begin you want to get the remaining (if any) refridgerant recovered. You can have a shop do this or do it on other ways I won't discuss here. If your leak is real bad (like mine) you wont need to do anything at all.

Heres the supplies I bought for the job. A brand new Delphi compressor (don't waste your money on a rebuilt, they never last!), new drier/accumulator, bottle of PAG refrigerant oil, factory air variable orifice tube, 1oz bottle of tracer dye, and a pack of assorted O-rings (I ended up not needing these)


The first thing is to lift the front end up and remove the front passenger wheel and splash guard. The FSM says to remove the cover under the front of the car too, but I see no reason why I had to remove it. Here you can see the lower fitting on the accumulator

Using 2 wrenches, disconnect the lower line on the accumulator and pull it apart by twisting it a bit. Make sure you replace the double O-rings (my new accumulator came with them). Next under the hood remove the one bolt on the relay center, remove it, and push it off to the side. Now remove the one bolt holding the plastic sleeve on the accumulator down to the body. (Didn't get a pic of that!). Break the connection on the top fitting and pull the accumulator out. Be sure to replace the O-rings on this connection too. Now is a good time to clean out years of sand and dirt that you had no idea was hiding behind this!

My system was leaking bad, so I put in the amount of PAG oil the FSM called for. Add 1/4oz of the dye to the pag oil (or as the label on the bottle says if different). Put 3 oz of oil in the accumulator. I used a syringe from a printer inkjet refill kit I never used to measure it. Take the plastic sleeve off the old accumulator and install it the same way on the new one. Make sure you coat the O-rings with PAG oil. Drop it back in the car, connect the lines and torque to 18ft lbs. You can now put the relay center back, but dont put the wheel well back together.

Next change out the orifice tube. It is located between the high and lo side ports by the passenger shock tower. Alldata claimed it was in line under the radiator support, but that is wrong. Just disconnect the fitting between the ports and using needle nose pliers, pull the old tube out. Mine took a little fighting with to pull.

Take a look at the old one and check for debris or metal. Mine was clean except for a ton of dried dye. You might want to flush your system if has an metal in it. Mine didn't so I just installed the new one.
If you are using a variable one like I did, you will notice it is longer than the old one. Oil up the O-rings and push it in. Mine was a royal PITA to get in there and doubt it will ever come out in one piece. Once its in, replace the O-ring, oil the ring and close it back up.


Now on to the compressor. Unplug the wire going to the clutch. Remove the accessory belt and put it out of the way. Make sure your battery is disconnected, to get to the bolt that holds the lines on you have to use an extension and the ratchet sits right up against the positive wire on the starter! Remove The but holding the block with the 2 lines on it and slide the lines off. Sorry, the pictures did not come out of this part. Remove the bolt on the back of the compressor and the 3 nuts on the front around the clutch. Slide the compressor off the studs and out through the wheel well.
You can see in the following pics how bad mine was leaking around the seal.



Compare the 2 compressors and make sure they are compatible. My old one was a delphi, and looked pretty much the same. The new one came with a pressure relief valve pre-installed.

Transfer over the stub between the 2 ports on the back. I used a pair of vice grips and grabbed the part of the shaft that was un-threaded.

Now to oil it. The FSM says to pour out the old oil and measure it. Put back in the same amount that came out unless it was less than 1 oz. Mine had nothing in it, so I added 2oz as the book says. Stand the compressor on its clutch, and slowly add 2oz of PAG oil. I had to turn the clutch a few times for it to take it all. When you are done, slide the compressor back in through the wheel well and back on the studs. As long as you keep the ports towards the top, the oil wont spill out. Tighten the mounting bolt and 3 nuts (can't remember the torque spec). Install the new sealing washers on the lines going to the compressor, do not reuse the old ones! Mine came with new ones, and instructs you to install them dry. Slide the block with the lines onto the new compressor and torque the nut down to 22ft lbs. Plug in the clutch, attach the belt and you are done! You can put the wheel back on and lower the car.

All in all, the job is not really that bad. At this point have a shop leak test, evacuate and charge the system. I was going to have a shop do it, until I found out a friend of mine had a gauge set and vacuum pump. I am happy to say mine held its vacuum for an hour with no leaks. I bought an adapter to use the small cans of 134a and charged it myself. All went well, my AC blows cold and the clutch doesn't grind anymore!

Great write up David!
This is exactly what I need to do to mine BEFORE next summer!

What was your total cost in the end? So I can plan a budget.

Yes, great write-up David, thanks very much for that info, we will all be facing this one sooner or later.

Glad to help! Heres a rough break down of costs
New Delphi compressor $196 shipped (rockauto)
New ACdelco Accumulator $29 shipped (rockauto)
Variable Orifice (factory air) $35 (Advance). You can also get a standard orifice for about $3
Pag oil $7 Autozone
UV dye $9 Advance
I charged it myself using a friend's gauges and vac pump, so the 134a cost $8 a can at walmart. I needed 4 cans as the gauges leaked, you usually only need a little over 2 cans.
A lot cheaper to do yourself. I spent a total of $269 on parts without the refrigerant. A shop would probably charge about $120 to charge it providing no issues were found, that's just a guess. A place near me is charging $99 to charge with 1lb of refrigerant included, our cars need 2lbs.

Exactly what I was thinking... Thank you! Here's a _+_ for you.

My only comments would be:
- Wow, great deal on the drier!
- Don't anyone buy the NON-variable orrifice-valve...

By the way, I totally understand the paranoia, but I'm very glad that your
dye purchase was "useless"...

The variable orifice was well worth the cost. When my AC did work before, at idle it was barely worth having on, only when driving was the AC cold enough to use. One interesting note about the drier. The box was an AC delco, bu the drier was a delphi. Further confirming they are one in the same company.

moldymac wrote:

Glad to help! Heres a rough break down of costs
New Delphi compressor $196 shipped (rockauto)
New ACdelco Accumulator $29 shipped (rockauto)
Variable Orifice (factory air) $35 (Advance). You can also get a standard orifice for about $3
Pag oil $7 Autozone
UV dye $9 Advance
I charged it myself using a friend's gauges and vac pump, so the 134a cost $8 a can at walmart. I needed 4 cans as the gauges leaked, you usually only need a little over 2 cans.
A lot cheaper to do yourself. I spent a total of $269 on parts without the refrigerant. A shop would probably charge about $120 to charge it providing no issues were found, that's just a guess. A place near me is charging $99 to charge with 1lb of refrigerant included, our cars need 2lbs.

Those are about the same numbers I came up with when looking in to it earlier.

Great write up Dave, this will be very helpful to me hopefully next week when I do this. I'm just waiting for the dryer and orifice tube to come in.

You had mentioned you didn't need the assorted pack of o-rings but in the write up you replaced a lot of them. Did you have some lying around or did they come with the compressor and dryer when you purchased them?

Thanks!

VJD2 wrote:

Great write up Dave, this will be very helpful to me hopefully next week when I do this. I'm just waiting for the dryer and orifice tube to come in.

You had mentioned you didn't need the assorted pack of o-rings but in the write up you replaced a lot of them. Did you have some lying around or did they come with the compressor and dryer when you purchased them?

Thanks!

The new compressor and dryer came with O-rings. The compressor actually uses a washer with a seal built in instead of O-rings. One thing I forgot to mention was the O-ring for the pipe that the orifice tube is in. The assorted pack did not come with one the right size. I ended up having one from another project. It looked like it could probably have been reused but I don't like to take chances with high pressure seals.

Ok so I just have to source that one o-ring.

I went through three AC compressor clutches before I finally replaced the compressor. Luckily it was all under warranty. The AC compressor was leaking oil internally, and it was extremely hard to turn by hand. Everyone including my mechanic swore it was the clutch until we took an extremely close look. The clutch would engage if you took a long stemmed screw driver and manually engaged it. Just save yourself the headache and replace the whole assembly. These things seem to go bad on these cars. Cost me about $400 to do it.

My best guess - you are probably leaking freon from the high milage compressor. But it's certainly possible to have other components leak.

Interesting, thanks, guys. It seems like I'm due for a recharge. Any idea what size can I would need to use for our system?

if you have an autozone near by rent the A/C manifold gauge set. The little gauges that comes on the cans are not very accurate.
If you do indeed need refrigerant then you can add a 12oz can at a time until you are at the proper pressure. some cans are just pure refrigerant while other are a mix of stop leak, oil and 134A. If you get the pure stuff it wouldn't hurt to add some more compressor oil too. i believe our cars take the PAG 150 HV oil but you may want to double check that. You can get a really small can of the oil and add it the same way you add the 134A can.

Mr.Riviera wrote:

if you have an autozone near by rent the A/C manifold gauge set. The little gauges that comes on the cans are not very accurate.
If you do indeed need refrigerant then you can add a 12oz can at a time until you are at the proper pressure. some cans are just pure refrigerant while other are a mix of stop leak, oil and 134A. If you get the pure stuff it wouldn't hurt to add some more compressor oil too. i believe our cars take the PAG 150 HV oil but you may want to double check that. You can get a really small can of the oil and add it the same way you add the 134A can.

On another thread on this site somebody explained why you *don't* get the refrigerant with stop-leak. Might want to search for it.

Albertj

When there is not enough pressure in the system, the clutch will not engage thus no AC. I'm guessing that was causing yours not to work from time to time. Try connecting a recharge kit to the low pressure port for the cheap end fix or get the whole system vac'd and recharged professionally. You might have a leak somewhere.. hard to say with high miles.

DEMonte1997 wrote:

When there is not enough pressure in the system, the clutch will not engage thus no AC. I'm guessing that was causing yours not to work from time to time. Try connecting a recharge kit to the low pressure port for the cheap end fix or get the whole system vac'd and recharged professionally. You might have a leak somewhere.. hard to say with high miles.

if you are going to go the recharge kit route, there is a kit you can get (last I saw one was at autozone) that has a dye in the refrigerant so that leaks can be spotted with a UV LED light (included with the kit).... sometimes all you need do is re-tighten the leaky fittings being careful not to overtorque them. You have to use your judgement--I am not saying go do that instead of taking it to a shop, I am saying I've seen such things available and it occurred to me you might not have so I'm sharing.

Today I checked pressure in the system. A gauge on the low-side showed 45 PSI @ 80ºF with car running and AC on. According to the instructions, that is in the middle of the normal range I should see at 80ºF. I'm going to assume there isn't a leak and monitor the voltage to the clutch with a lamp. Stay tuned...

Go to Harbour Freight ,and for $20 you can buy a little vac to remove all the old refrigerant

Wired a test lamp today (fine leads tapped into plug terminals, no cutting) and found no voltage going to AC clutch when AC is turned on. Trouble is, I haven't been able to get it to work 'properly' since this morning, so cannot confirm 100% that the clutch isn't going bad, but it's a good sign to see the lamp not lighting, indicating this is most likely electrical: a wiring issue, fuse, or relay. Now need to trace the wiring and find where the fuses and relays are (fuses in front of cabin look good).

double check the wiring isn't fouled by oil,if it is it will intermittently short out

Thanks. Moving the test light upstream to a location above or behind the engine should rule out that issue. I don't have my manuals with me. Does anyone offhand know where the wiring to the clutch is routed to? Does it go to a relay under the rear seat, or just to the fuse box up front?

UPDATE: found a way to activate the clutch, allowing the AC system to operate. Using the climate control in automatic mode, I lowered the desired temperature down to 60º (it's minimum value). This caused the clutch to turn on. I made sure to confirm the test lamp was not illuminated before turn-on, and did light with clutch engaged. The AC blew ice cold air. This means the clutch, compressor, and all wiring, relays and fuses are probably working correctly. Now I'm almost convinced it's the climate control module.