auxilliary a/c unit

Hello all. Brand new member here. I tried searching for an issue like mine but couldn't find anything, so here goes.

My wife has a 2001 Villager. We discovered just the other day that all of the refrigerant had leaked out of the a/c system some time over the Winter. The shop we took it to found that the leaks are in the lines that run to the rear cooling unit. It turns out that these lines are fairly hard to come by. Dealers don't just stock them. They have to come from some central parts depot somewhere, and are subsequently pretty darn expensive.

Both the shop and the local dealer both said they've never seen anything like this before, with those lines leaking. When the shop filled the system, after looking for leaks the first time and not finding anything, the system only took about 15 minutes to lose it's charge. Needless to say my wife was pretty dismayed when she got home. Our extended warranty won't cover these repairs, and it looks like it will be approaching $1,000 before it's all said and done.

Has anybody else ever run into this problem? In a fantasy world I'm hoping somebody will say "Save your money! All you have to do is this and this. Really cheap", but I'm not naive. I'm just wondering if it's ever happened to anybody before and what they did about it.

Sorry for the long post.

Save your money. You need to just have thos lines capped or sealed or plainly just bent back so they cannot leak. I have learned that rear ac is great when you first get in the car but it cannot run alone so there for we only used the front anyway. When you charge the system you will have max ac and will only need the front anyway. I you still feel the need to replace then thats up to you. I know that these lines can also be welded/soldered not sure which one but it can be done. I had a 96 and it broke under the drivers door. I had a non degree mechanic do the job for 40 bucks and he even used so ac line from another car. I did it but this is your van. Most shops follow RULES and regs but a do it your self guy and buddy mechanic can get it done for pennys.

Thanks for the reply. The shop we took it to suggested that the lines may be able to be fixed, but they can't do it, and they said there aren't any specialized a/c shops in the area anymore. I looked in the phone book and called a couple, but nobody would do it. The wife wants it fixed 'correctly', so there aren't any more problems down the road, so I'm forbidden to mess with it myself.

I thought about seeing if the rear system could be removed from the loop, but I can't imagine that the front system could do much if any cooling at the rear of the van. And we regularly have people sitting in the back, so, unfortunately, this is probably the best way to do it.

Sounds like you are in for some BILL $$$$$$. These lines are not sold as replacement parts cause they are not supposed to break. In the event of an accident the insurance company's total out the vehicle because of this. You will not likely find a repair shop that is willing to do this do to EPA standards on Freon recovery. If you go to the dealer then you will not only have a long wait but a very costly repair since they will suggest that you also replace the ac unit because of possible contamination of the unit(bs). If you look at the retail value of these vans you will see that a dealer will sell them for book value in the excellent range and only give a 1/4 of that for trade in. If you plan on fixing it let us all know the cost and time it took. You could also just trade in for a new one and then you can get a new 36 month warrenty.

That's kind of what I figured about someone hacking it up and blocking off that part of the system. It would be against EPA regs.

The quote we got is for about $850. Only $270 of that is labor. They ordered the line assemblies today. One is $175, the other $230. They're also going to replace the drier, at $180, because the system was compromised. They figure a few days for the parts to get there, then a couple days to repair it. I'll post an update when it's finished. It wouldn't surprise me if once they tear it apart they find something else that needs to be replaced also.

I just bought a new car last Fall. We can't afford two car payments. : )

We got the van fixed yesterday. It only took them a day. It turns out that they didn't need one of the hose assemblies afterall, so that saved us $175. The total bill came to $800, including the initial visit when they first recharged the system and put in the dye. The wife says it seems to work just fine now. Blows plenty cold. It's unfortunate we had to spend that much money to get it fixed, but the van is only five years old and we didn't want to start band-aiding it just yet. ; )

Well glad to hear its fixed.

Yeah, well, that's not quite true anymore. It worked for a couple of days. By Sunday it wasn't working again. It's going to have to go back in. I'm more than a little miffed. It's probably that hose assembly they said they didn't need. I'll let y'all know what happens.

So if anyone's still interested in this debacle, here's what happened. The shop we had taken the van to, and subsequently back to two more times, made an appontment at the local Ford dealer for us. They said they could not find the leak and didn't know what else to do.

The Ford dealer replaced a fitting, but the system still leaked. Long story short, they checked the rear evaporator, which is back by the hatch. When they opened up the unit, they said it looked like a green bomb (the dye) had exploded in there. Obviously, they had found the leak. Replaced a fitting and now it's working fine.

The first shop was kind enough to pay for the expenses at the Ford dealer. They said they had inconvenienced us enough, and were completely baffled as to what to do next.

So all-in-all it cost us about $1k out of pocket. Nothing that was replaced was covered under our extended warranty. I guess on the bright side, it could have cost us a few hundred dollars more by the time somebody had figured it all out. : )