Leaking AC Condenser

[deMort]

I replaced my condensers last year using RIDEX ones from AutoDoc ...£60 for the pair!

Its quite shocking the price difference on theses condensers, they seem to range from £30 to £200+ each

There is a reason why the cheap ones are cheap ... trust me

My cheap ones are 8 years old and still like new.

I'm certainly not going to argue ..

lets just say .. cheap ones last week .. X1 had a knackered thread , X1 had no gas in the condenser when i undid the clamps on it .. that indicates a leak .

Both returned .. two more .. X1 had a knackered thread .. i gave up and ran a tap through it .. the other was fine ..

They needed shorter bolts and the original Porsche bolts bottomed out before they would clamp up .

X4 condensers and only 1 actually fitted out of the box .

As i said .. if it works then fine .. i just seem to have bad experiences of doing things on the cheap for customers when it only ends up costing us time .

Not moaning as such .. i just wish there was a little bit of quality control as 3 out of 4 condensers supplied defective is a bit .. well .. stupid !

 

[Alex]

Everything's ***** these days, regardless of price. Best just buying the cheapest.

 

[Swampy]

Everything's ***** these days, regardless of price. Best just buying the cheapest.

I'm not so sure Alex My AC engineer said he fitted some condenser's that were bending under their own weight. He advised the customers that they wouldn't last long but they insisted as they were selling the car or just didnt want to splash out that little bit more


Swamps

 

[Swampy]

Forgot to add this when job was done a few weeks ago, all fitted and Desicator replaced, filled and running super chilled :yahoo:


Swamps

 

[TonyC911]

Cool! :heat:

And a satisfying DIY job! Which parts manufacturer did you go with in the end?

 

[Swampy]

Cool! :heat:

And a satisfying DIY job! Which parts manufacturer did you go with in the end?

The AC engineer supplied all parts for £165 with 2 years warranty, I just fitted and £65 to refill.

Swamps

 

[badbadtz]

I replaced my condensers last year using RIDEX ones from AutoDoc ...£60 for the pair!

Its quite shocking the price difference on theses condensers, they seem to range from £30 to £200+ each

There is a reason why the cheap ones are cheap ... trust me

I would tend to go with Porsche O rings .. if purple then ok .. if green .. possibly a bit iffy , downside is Porsche used to make them green , the cheap ones though .. they are green and look cheap .... they also can leak .. again .. trust me !

A bit of pag oil dribbled over the O rings just before fitting is best .. you can fit dry but pag oil reacts with the O rings and makes them swell up .. hence a better seal from the off .

Condensers such as EIS .. the original pipe clamp bolts will be too long .. you have to have some shorter ones .

The ones listed in this thread .. they seem ok but i have no knowledge there .

I had fitted the EIS ones to a previous car and was happy with the quality of them. Agreed that the clamp is ever so slightly shorter than OEM but nothing a fat washer on the bolt didn't solve.

As you rightly point out, having the correct o-rings size is probably more important to prevent leaks. Annoyingly Porsche use a very uncommon size that can't be sources easily ...though you'd probably get away with using the next nearest size.

 

[deMort]

I think i've just been Unlucky with the EIS ones recently , a bad batch perhaps.. that or our local ECP supplier is getting all the returned units and sending them back out as being ok !

Another one last week and one had no gas in it when i undid the seals ( they come filled with nitrogen , no gas indicates a leak ) .

I also found pin prick holes in it so an obvious manufacturing defect ... returned ..

Second one had no gas in it ..returned.

3rd and 4th seemed ok but im kinda losing faith in these so far .

I would suggest .. always buy Porsche a/c seals .. aftermarket ones .. well .. i've had to replace a few over the years .

997 and these are currently purple in colour , aftermarket tend to be green .

 

[badbadtz]

I spent ages looking for the correct Porsche sized o-rings and discovered that the common green ones were made of HNBR and the purple ones EPDM ...they have very similar properties so either should work if the correct sizes are used

 

[deMort]

I stand corrected