Khloesdad

Thats my plan for now. Keep the car closed up for a couple of days in his garage and open a door and sniff through the upper/lower vents. Even the slightest of leak can set it off if its been closed for a few days. These new 134 detectors work very well.

GD993C4

A leak was detected in my A/C evaporator. Assuming that the installation process is the same, which evaporator is recommended Behr or Griffiths, and why.
Thank you

crw

I had this problem in my car.

Recharge worked, after abou2 weeks did not blow cold

Repair was pricey @ $3,200 - aft6ermarket part was @ $900, rest was labor.

Old part showed corrosion at the bottom of the codensor.

LimeyBoy

I've still not finished this 🙄, but I did do a second investigation and confirmed the leak is down below the evaporator ports. I removed the metal panel behind the gas tank to double check leak signal is highest in that lower evap area (yes) and I also replaced the 4x orings on the evap port block and repeated pressure rise and sniffer tests = no change, still leaking.
So I'm going to pull the gas tank.
Then I will replace the evaporator with an upgraded (i.e. Griffiths) even if that is not the actual leak point - may as well and it looks like the Griffiths is higher quality than oem. I usually stick to oem but here I feel it is a worthwhile and invisible upgrade. Certainly hope I wont have to pull the gas tank too many more times in the future...

Metal Guru

I'm in the middle of an A/C refurbishment (evaporator, condenser and reworking lines with barrier hose, new o-rings, ect).
The Griffiths evaporator is NLA. They told me they won't have their new design ready for a year. They did recommend using an evaporator that did not have copper headers bonded to an aluminum matrix as that is the common failure point (bi-metallic corrosion). That knocks the cheap Behr evaporator out of the running. I did source an all-aluminum evaporator from FVD Brombacher. It's more expensive but probably cheaper in the long run due to the reliability improvement.
Also, I'm replacing all the foam seals in the suitcase and duct work to keep hot air out of the system. New Dansk evaporator fans are replacing the original Bosch fans. I also need a parallel flow condenser, which I sourced from Griffiths (a great advantage to owning a 993 is that it already has the correct condenser and barrier hose for R-134a).
I'd bet a 993 suitcase will need nearly as much attention as my 965 did due to system aging. If you have to have it out of the car and apart, it makes sense to refurbish and replace everything in it.

GD993C4

I also confirmed that the Griffiths evaporator is not available for one year and will check out the FVD Brombacher.
Thanks

pp000830

Respectfully I have to disagree, my car has in excess of 100K miles on it with the original evaporator and most cars have the same so for many, it seems there is no "normal time to replace it" involved.
Andy

ehanauer

I replaced my evaporator with a Kuhl about four years ago and AC is working fine. The problem is that everything in the frunk has to be removed, resulting in high labor costs. Mine was around 3k.

Metal Guru

It's not a technically daunting job to do yourself as long as you are keeping track of what you take off and what replacement parts are in-transit. The only tool I lacked was a 1mm star screwdriver for taking the suitcase apart.
There are foam seals that you have to fabricate but that's the only "skilled" task.

LimeyBoy

Hey Paul, any feedback on the FVD Alu Evaporator you purchased? Nice fit and finish etc?
Cheers