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A/C Removal - Lighten the Load
| Question: |
"I got the car and the A/C didn't work, and I'm too cheap and lazy to care. What can I do to rid myself of this dead weight?" |
| Answer: |
"Chop it out using these simple instructions." |
| Level of Difficulty: |
Sweaty and mildly aurduous |
| Time: |
Dwarves with tiny hands: 2 hours. Everyone else: 3 hours. |
Pictures:
Intro:
Before you ask if this is really what you want, you
have to ask yourself a few questions:
- Am I ever going to use the A/C again?
- Am I ever REALLY going to use the A/C again?
- Do I want to rip into the guts of my beautiful german sports car and
tear out it's lungs?
- Do I talk to myself too much, and always in bulleted lists?
Now that you've resolved these issues and
possibly seen a psychiatrist, we'll continue.
Audi's have great, big A/C systems, with great, big
heavy metal pieces. Once you rid yourself of these metal
pieces you will see immediate improvements in handling, power and
cornering. Yes, they may not be in such abundance that you'll be changed
forever, but you will notice them.
Fix:
First, you'll have to release the
pressure from the system. This is pretty easy, but extreme caution has to
be used. This may not look dangerous, but it is. Quite a bit
of pressure could be lodged in those pipes that you're about to stand in front
of un-screwing. Please don't die.
Second, after
the pressure is released, you'll have to get all the big pieces from under and
behind the glovebox. It's behind that fiber-board shroud at your
passenger's feet.
Third, You'll have to strip out the
metal tubing, and A/C cooler/radiator-thingy from in front of your
actual radiator, near the front of the car.
Sounds easy, right? Well, wear a headband,
because you'll be sweating.
- Check for pressure in system with screw-on fitting on the top hose in the "extra" radiator in front
of your actual radiator.
- Release pressure from system
- Unbolt auxilliary radiator from actual radiator. Let it swing free.
- Unbolt compressor from engine block (a few bolts here and there, just look for the ones that go into the block)
- Remove unnecessary A/C tubing from engine bay
- cut hose going through firewall, and take the whole compressor/aux radiator and put it aside.
- undo black shroud behind firewall, but in engine bay
- unbolt two bolts holding down air housing on passenger's side
- unbolt two bolts holding down other side of air housing.
- slice sticky stuff holding air housing to body (black, gross crap)
- unscrew glovebox (two screws in near right corner, one screw at far right corner, 1 screw on front left side)
- unbolt & unscrew two pairs of bolts/screws that hold housing below firewall in passenger cabin.
- unbolt/unscrew evaporator from underneath glovebox and remove, pulling those two cut lines through a rubber nipple on firewall.
- replace glovebox
- replace air housing, making a new gasket with some liquid gasket
- You can remove the rubber nipple, and put some liquid gasket to seal the hole better
This is a great time to do your battery relocation, as the two holes in that rubber nipple are GREAT ways to pass battery cables to the trunk.
