In the process of re newing my AC system I removed my evaporator to flush it out. As I was pulling the cover out a ways I found this:

Pulled out a bit more:

And the cover all the way off the car, about 33% blockage:

Nice and clean:


TXGOOD posted his photo:



Mine back in the car:


My car has always been parked in my garage since it came to Texas in 2009. A PO must have favored a shady parking spot somewhere. If you are planning on getting your AC up and working, consider removing the evaporator before you get the new refrigerant in the system. It only took me around 20 minuets to remove teh cover as I already had the spare tire tub out of my car.

[This message has been edited by josef644 (edited 08-18-2012).]

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[This message has been edited by josef644 (edited 08-18-2012).]

quote Originally posted by deceler8: Might that explain the poor airflow in A/C mode that many complain about ? Can the evap core be cleaned without actually removing it from the car ?

I was having air flow issues (A/C on or not) ever since I bought mine last year (barely any air was getting in the passenger compartment even if the blower was on high). My A/C compressor was removed by the PO and I'm not planning on fixing the A/C right now so I didn't want to remove the evaporator just yet. I took a look at the evaporator through the fan speed resistor assembly hole (the thing connected to the heater box right next to the accumulator).... ewww! No leaves or any really big debris like the pictures on top of this thread, but the fins were clogged shut with dust/lint and other very small particules (actually looked a bit worse than TXGOOD's).

I was able to get rid of most of it (say 90%) simply by removing the blower, the accumulator and fan relays, then unscrewing the plastic cover that runs from the blower to the evaporator case (about 5-6 bolts to remove) and move it off as far as I could (without removing the heater core hoses) and get the tip of a shop-vac on the evaporator.

It's not perfect right now (a new evaporator would most likely allow even more air flow) but at least I've got decent air flow which will be useful in a couple of months when the temperature will start to drop here in Canada

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Ben
87 GT
84 Indy #1863

[This message has been edited by benoitmalenfant (edited 08-18-2012).]

[This message has been edited by theogre (edited 08-18-2012).]

Thought I'd post a few pictures to show how you can get a shop-vac to clean your A/C Evaporator without completely removing it. Might be overkill, but I had a camera handy when I did it so I decided to take pictures anyway:

Here's a picture of the plastic case that will get pulled part-way to access the evaporator:



1- This is the fan/blower resistor (used when you are selecting LOW, MEDIUM-LOW or MEDIUM-HIGH on the HVAC controller inside the car). Unscrewing this resistor will allow for a sneak peak of how your evaporator looks inside. Use a flashlight and you'll be able to see how heavily clogged your evaporator might be.

2- Fan/Blower. You can remove it to make the heater/blower plastic case removal easier, but you don't have to.

3- This 7mm bolt will be the hardest to remove while keeping the evaporator's inlet tube connected (hard to use a socket, since the inlet tube is in the way, I used a small 7mm wrench to make sure I wasn't playing with the inlet tube too much.)

Here is what the case looks like when all screws are removed and the case is moved as far as the heater core inlet/oulet hoses (all the way to the passenger side, next to the yellow sticker) will let you move it :



Here is what my evaporator looks like after using the shop-vac to remove as much crud as I could. Not perfect but clean enough to let a decent amount of air through and restore decent air flow in the cabin:





Remember, my A/C is not working and I was simply trying to clean the evaporator to restore air flow in the cabin. I know I'll have to change this evaporator when I decide to re-install an A/C compressor.

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Ben
87 GT
84 Indy #1863

[This message has been edited by benoitmalenfant (edited 08-19-2012).]

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