08+ Evaporator removal

[Sabrewings]

Anyone removed their evaporator yet? The FSM says you need to take out the whole HVAC unit and then remove the evaporator from that. The down side is that you have to drain the radiator, take out your steering column, and pretty much the entire dash from the car to do so.

Looking at the FSM, it looks like you might be able to finesse it out by taking out the blower unit assembly. Hard to tell without doing it.

Any experience here? I'm still having trouble with my AC (it dumped the new charge in a couple days). I'm about to dump in some UV dye and isolate the leak, but I want to be able to look at the evaporator without tearing my entire car apart.

Alternatively I could check the drain tube for signs of UV dye, but that's very hit or miss. I'm hoping it's somewhere else... anywhere else... but the evaporator. I don't want this to get ugly.

 

[Sabrewings]

Have you removed yours on your 08+? I'm looking for actual experience since the FSM does say the steering column has to come out to get out the Instrument Panel, which is required to pull the heat and cooling unit, which is necessary to remove the evaporator.

I want to know if the evaporator can come out without completely removing the heat and cooling unit. If it can be finessed out after removing the blower unit, I have a chance.

It sounds like I'm going to just have to try it to find out.

 

[Sabrewings]

Thanks for the advice, rek. I've confirmed my evaporator core is indeed leaking. So, when I end up doing it I'll take lots of pics and offer info for others who run into this (is starting to be a bit of a trend in 08/09s, I'm seeing).

 

[Sabrewings]

You can indeed do it without taking the entire dash apart. See here:

http://www.iwsti.com/forums/gr-memb...super-lightweight-battery-28.html#post3645743