AC SYSTEM UPGRADES

Mercedes W201 & W124's are notorious for the radiator throats breaking/cracking at the most inappropriate times, my W201 was no exception.  I decided to do this repair myself (and save about $800) and ordered a Nissen radiator.  After taking the car apart, there were issues with my condenser, so I ordered one of those, then there were some issues with hoses, so I ordered all new hoses, ac lines and drive belt.  I ended up replacing everything that normally requires you to dissemble the entire front end like shown in the picture

Once the radiator/condenser and all associated parts had been replaced, it was time to upgrade the non-working AC system and replace the R12 with R134A.  After some tests I determined that there were again issues with my evaporator.  After talking with my local MB stealership, they informed me that the entire dash needed to be pulled to replace the evaporator unit.  I thought that sounded like a load of crap, so I of course referenced my handy MB service CD and found out that this was not the case.  The evaporator unit could be accessed from the engine compartment and it was a 3 hour job at most!  There is a sub panel in the rear firewall that opens up, this gives you enough room to remove the evaporator unit.  It took me about 2 hours to do this job

You can see from these pictures that the cowling needs to be removed and removing the wiper arm assembly is a must also.  You can then access the cover for the blower fan

I was going to replace this fan but there seemed to be no reason to do so








Were almost there, after the fan is removed, the box assembly needs to be removed before you can get to the evaporator unit

Then there is the frame unit that needs to be removed before you can get to the evaporator.  These steps are not








 

<Back