bureau13

I thought I'd move on to one of the "easy" jobs...the expansion valve. I mean, how hard can it be? Pull the cowl cover, it's right there! Yeah, I read some stuff about how the earlier version had some issues, but it didn't seem so bad. I found the thread about using ratchet straps to (gently) pull back the larger refrigerant line so you can get the old one out, etc. Did all that, it worked, got the new one in. You can't tighten the rear clamp plate at all once you start on the front, so I did that one, got it nice and snug. Now, the front plate. Well, that damned large refrigerant line, which was so firmly plugged into the old valve, is now not lining up right, and is certainly not pushing itself into that hole. I must have deformed it a bit, although I was as gentle as possible. The screw on the clamp plate is off center, so no matter what I do, it snugs down around the smaller line first, and then....well it appears to be trying to bore into valve at an angle. I may have screwed it up right there, although with everything disconnected, the screw seems to still hold. But I just can NOT get it to snug down on the larger line.

I don't mind difficult and complex things taking a while. It's when the seemingly easy stuff doesn't work that drives me nuts. Gah!

The Forgotten On

It's easy when you remove your interior and then the HVAC box

I did it before, it is not fun. But believe me, working AC in a 928 is a nice thing.

bureau13

The really annoying part is we got an unexpected mini cool front over the weekend. But I couldn't enjoy driving in it, because I was "fixing" my goddamn AC...

FredR

Jeff,

I think Porsche deliberately designed these things to ensure that DIY hacks like ourselves have a miserable existence- that or no skin on our knuckles.

I have done the job you are attempting on my late S4 and it was one of the few things I have tried that was relatively uneventful but I can see why things could easily go pear shaped- I presume your setup is similar. The only thing I can suggest is to pull the expansion valve, make sure the mounting allen screws are engaging easily [no crossed threads] and start all over again assuming you have not done so already.

Good luck- sorting out the a/c in Florida is not a "nice to have option" - it is somewhat essential- ask me how I know [I was working on my engine wiring last night in 35C heat]!

Rgds

Fred

bureau13

I think you're right, Fred...I'll pull the expansion valve and check it, try to get that one line back in it's original position, and go from there. Unless I only want to drive it at night in the summer, and only when I don't mind showing up sweating, I do need to get this thing working.

bureau13

I was searching through old Rennlist posts, and someone mentioned replacing AC o-rings at the fuel cooler. Which made me think, why not remove the metal line from the fuel cooler entirely to make getting the expansion valve back in place, rather than just unbolting the cooler bracket. Especially if I should be doing that anyway to replace o-rings (I hadn't considered it, but I have a big pack of misc. green AC o-rings, so I probably should). Yet other than this one post, I haven't seen anyone mention it. Is there a good reason not to do it?

dr bob

You should do it regardless, should have loosened that originally to get the expansion valve loose. But... IIRC the o-rings are not common in generic o-ring packs. If you got the o-ring care package from one of our great vendors, you have them. I ended up buying them from a local AC specialty shop, the place that rebuilt my hose way back when.

bureau13

I did this...all of my AC fittings seem tighter than they need to be, but thanks to that HF wrench set, I got this off. The good news: I now have the expansion valve installed. The bad news: It's the old expansion valve I found out why I couldn't get the pipe to seat...at some point while trying to tighten it down when things weren't straight, I screwed up the hole it goes in, it's no longer perfectly round and the pipe actually won't go in all the way. So I said screw it, put the old one back in, and honestly, the job wasn't too bad now that I sort of know what I'm doing. If it fails, then I'm out a freon fill and I'll have to redo that, but I don't feel like sitting here waiting for a new one. Who knows, the old one might not be bad. It was dirty, but I cleaned it up. At any rate, it has new o-rings now, as does the fuel cooler.

dr bob

It's a quite common Behr expansion valve. You can probably find one locally if you try. Or wait a couple days for the fedex truck to get there.

bureau13

That would probably be the smart play. Any idea what the likelihood of the valve being bad is? I get the idea that people say to replace them while you're doing everything because they're not all that expensive, but I've seen others say they don't replace them until they actually fail, since they've had new ones fail almost immediately. So I'm not sure, in terms of probability, how stupid I would be if I decided to see if the old one still works...

Ducman82

i was/am in the same boat. i could only get it down to 55 degrees. mainly doing it for my toddler in the back seat, I'm fine without it. its souther California, never gets that hot.

that being said, i just took out almost all of my AC system and am going to replace just about everything. trying to get the expansion valve out right now. Evaporator is clean so it will stay. i am even thinking of going from the "ok" 1981 system to a "slightly better" later model system due to the better condenser. .... WEEEEEEE

The Forgotten On

Is the later condenser better? I've wondered this since they use different designs for the construction of the condenser.

Ladybug83

Also consider removing the hood, makes working in the little hvac bay much more enjoyable and it's only four bolts and the two little clips on the hydraulic arms. Make some scratch marks for re-alignment when you put it back on, and having a second set of hands to lift/hold the hood really makes things go better. Without the hood, It may be easier to get the valve lined up straight and tightened properly without the aggravation and special tools.

Alan

Several have talked about the new parallel flow condensers being better. Some pics of them installed on a 928 make the fit look quite OK. Might try that? I will when I next need to do a condenser replacement.

Alan

FredR

Just remember that for those with the rear a/c, one finds that they may distribute the a/c effect better but they do not do overall cooling better. Thus if you have little ones that sit in the back seats they are great but otherwise the rear a/c is to all intents and purposes [in a hot climate] useless. I put this down to the system performance being limited by condenser capacity and [on the later variants at least] with transmission coolers have smaller condensers and in a hot climate we lose some a/c performance in the hot weather season [over here in summer we typically see 44c mid afternoon]. I try to avoid using the car during such heat.

Regards

Fred