I agree w/ advice to overhaul system. At this age, many orings will be brittle and leaking. Also, the expansion valve to evaporator connections (brass on aluminum) tend to create a corrosion powder that damages orings.


Flushing is essential to remove debris, particularly if you find any evidence of compressor seizure (aluminum debris).


There is a complicated procedure for replacing PAG, but I've always used ~6 oz (more than spec) w/o problems. You lose a bit every time you check ac pressures so extra is good.


good luck

 

Thanks for all the advice guys, it's been a big help, I live in Texas too, and going through another summer without a/c is getting old.

A/c lines seem to be pretty inexpensive, should I just get new ones? Or is flushing it pretty simple?

 

Flushing the lines is pretty easy so I personally would not get new rubber lines unless you notice any signs of leakage. Inspect the rubber lines where they "crimp" to the metal ends for any signs of leakage....and of course along the rubber as well.

 

so i checked today and one of my a/c lines that runs from the compressor and past the headers is cracked (I remember being ruff with it when i was putting the new header on) but it got me thinking about the heat. Do y.all think i need to be concerned about the unprotected header putting off to much heat? or can i just wrap the lines with heat tape? thanks again for the help!

 

get a new line if cracked

 

So i'll be replacing those two hard lines going in front of the header
(due to them being cracked) The compressor itself the expansion valve, the orings and the drier, is there anything else i should replace? like the evaporator ? i'll also be replacing the temp control switch (which broke on me) Am i missing anything? Thanks for the help!

 

I recently bought a used evaporator for my car. I used a pair of tweezers to bend the fins to all max air flow. I also used some coil clean at Lowes to clean them. You may want to do this on the evaporator and the condenser to maximize air flow for cooling. If the evaporator or condenser are in really bad shape, you may want to replace.

 

When you start taking things apart remember age of your car. On my 95 a new evap was installed old one was moldy and smelled bad. Condenser was flushed. My new txv is noisy i can live with that. As said earlier you only want to do it once.

 

Thanks! Ill be replacing it especially since im doing the expansion valve, Im gonna start collecting the parts, does anyone have brands they like? or are they all pretty much the same?

 

I'd probably go with an OEM Honda expansion valve. The other stuff you could get on a site like ackits (dot) com. The hard lines may only be available from Honda, but I remember seeing some on rockauto's site. They weren't much less expensive than Honda's lines, so I went with Honda. Denso is another brand to consider for compressor and they may make some other a/c parts.

You can look on a site like hondapartsnow.com for the o-ring sizes you need for your system. I think ackits has an o-ring set you can purchase too.