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If its your first time doing it takes a while but if you have done it before it is a 2 hour job and not hard.Just a lot of screws to remove.
I did one a month ago for a customer and charged them $600 and thought it was too much. Personally I think $1000 is way too much but that seems to be the going rate.
2 hours? The evaporator in the bmw takes 8-10+ hours to remove the whole dash. My buddy's car AC broke down when it was 120 degrees out in Arizona
2 hours? The evaporator in the bmw takes 8-10+ hours to remove the whole dash. My buddy's car AC broke down when it was 120 degrees out in Arizona
So what. It is not a ford focus is it?
A chevy truck evap takes about 30 minutes to take out. It all depends on the car. You can do it the hard way or the easy way. I do it the easy way.
I cut the refrigerant lines and the straps that hold the duct together with snips. All of them. Then pull everything out. All of it. If you try just disconnecting the ducts from the box or unscrewing the fittings on the refrigeration lines its going to take you all day and a lot of broken knuckles and a possible divorce.
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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If the dash has to come out, there will be airbags, steering column, and a lot of other bits to be removed. Two hours on a large truck with access from underneath might take two hours, but small cars take much longer. Even a heat core ($40-100 part) can be $700 labor if the dash has to come out.
2 hours? The evaporator in the bmw takes 8-10+ hours to remove the whole dash. My buddy's car AC broke down when it was 120 degrees out in Arizona
You have to kind of watch which manual you are using. When I worked as a mechanic we would do jobs in 45 minutes that paid 4 hours!
My manual showed me where to drill holes; the DIY manual had the owner taking out unnecessary assemblies.
I don't know about your BMW. But there was a Mercury model where we removed the right front wheel and cut a hole in the wheel well to access the heater core. Plucked it out and patched the hole with the patch that was included.
The "civilian" manual had you taking out the dashboard. I hated that about the industry.
A chevy truck evap takes about 30 minutes to take out. It all depends on the car. You can do it the hard way or the easy way. I do it the easy way.
I cut the refrigerant lines and the straps that hold the duct together with snips. All of them. Then pull everything out. All of it. If you try just disconnecting the ducts from the box or unscrewing the fittings on the refrigeration lines its going to take you all day and a lot of broken knuckles and a possible divorce.
So, how do you handle the refrigerant lines that you cut? Just use new lines and thread them through?
So, how do you handle the refrigerant lines that you cut? Just use new lines and thread them through?
Cut them on the evaporator side of the nut. Of course it depends on the car.
Many are connected to the accumulator which needs to be replaced too. Use bolt cutters on that.
Last summer I paid $1000 to have the AC repaired on a 1999 truck with more than 200k miles. Why? Because we regularly have temps over 100 here from May-Oct and when you have AC, you can get to work looking presentable. If you go without AC, even with the windows down, you arrive at your destination sweaty and smelling like exhaust. It's worth $1000 to me not to arrive with my hair soaked in sweat, makeup running down my face, shirt soaked with sweat where the seat belt was, every day of the summer.
An old car with air conditioning is still a good, comfortable car to me. An old car without air conditioning feels like I'm rolling around in a junker.
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