Soo I had just gotten home from work and turned off my car. Stepping outside and closing my door, I was greeted with a weird hissing sound coming from the front of my car. I though "ohh great, my car is overheating or something...".

I walk to the front of the car and see this... I am greated with a steaming, hissing, popping, dripping green gooey stuff coming from the front of the car...


Upon closer inspection I realize that it is coming from my AC Condenser behind my CX Racing Heat Exchanger...


Soo, the only think I can think of is that the H/E must have rubbed or bumped up against the AC Condenser hard enough to crack it somehow. It seemed to have a pinhole in it that was spewing that green stuff.


Anyone have any ideas? Should I even bother taking it to the dealer? Or will they laugh and say hey buddy ur aftermarket junk cracked your AC Condenser, so pay up! I'm not even certain that the H/E did it, becuase the hole is kinda behind the H/E not on the corner, but I'm not sure what else could have caused it...

Anyone have any experience installing a new AC Condenser? Is it as simple as disconnect the lines, remove the unit, reinstall new unit, reconnect lines, recharge AC with one of those kits? Thanks for any info...

 

Bump... Can anyone give some insight into this? Do they make such a thing as "AC Condenser Stop Leak" like they do for radiators?

 

quicksteel attempt...otherwise get a new one.

 

that would prob work. they make coolant with a leak stopper but its not going to do a darn thing on tht big of a leak

 

Thanks for the input. I will have to try that quicksteel idea... Hopefully I can seal it up enough... Will I have to use one of those AC Recharge kits afterwards?

 

no it will magically work on its own.....

 

i just looked at mine and noticed I too have a small hole in my a/c condenser. I had an incident with the bumper of another car which I beleive forced it to strike but none the less I too have the green goo leaking.

 

ya, buy the refrigerant and a hose, (some come with one)
then turn on ur car and turn ur AC on Full Blast.
Attach the refrigerant to the High pressure side and let it empty the can.

DOne.

 

Thanks for the advice. I will try and patch the whole and recharge. Real quick though, which connection is the high pressure side? The one to the left of the engine on the passenger side?

 

on my car i recharged from the bottom by the drivers side headlight

 

Update: I QuickSteel'ed the hole rubbing the the Condenser... I then waited about an hour and recharged the AC... After about 15 mins, the AC blew cold again.

QuickSteel FTMFW!!!...

Only time will tell if it will hold up or not. Vibration might knock the plug out. I re-mounted my CX H/E a little lower soo it will now hit against the lip instead of hitting against the Condenser.

 

from your pics i cant tell exactly were it rubbed through, but it looks like the hose clamp is what rubbed through it. id turn it around so it doesnt happen again. if it wasnt what rubbed through, turn it around so it doesnt cause another problem

 

Yea the hole was actually caused by the lower right corner of the H/E rubbing on the AC Condenser. The clamp does not make any contact with anything. You actually can't see the hole in any of these pics. I am just glad that a plug was able to seal it good enough to hold pressure.

 

at 18 psi on 1.5 inch by .5 inch compression people havent had those fall out of their SCs. Glad to know it worked, as rigged as it is....

dont worry, i have rigged stuff too, like my injen has 3 duct taped areas with microfiber rags underneath to prevent holes being punched through the tubing.

 

Yea hopefully it will be OK, at least for some time. The AC system is at like 40psi though according to the gauge that was on the recharge bottle... The hole however was only a little tiny pinhole that was rubbed through on one of the "ribs" of the condenser, so hopefully it sealed it up well enough. If not, I'll replace the condenser, I found them online for about $100. Thanks for the insight!..

 

JW how much refrigerant did ur empty AC system take?

i found it weird when i had to refill mine it took almost a whole one of the big cans.

 

Yea I used an entire large can. There was only a little bit left in it, and I think it was just some remaining oil. It filled up to right about the upper limit of "safe full" on the gauge... Until it was almost done, the air didn't really start to get cold. Now it is like ice.

 

eh what kind of freon do we use? r134a or something?

 

Yea, I think that is it. I just picked up the large bottle w/ gauge and hose at Walmart. I think it was like 21.95 or something...