300M ac

By the way, any good ac shops near Ocala Florida?

On second generation LH cars it is also common for the AC suction line to fail -- it rusts/rots through where it runs along the rail. You can check it visually to see if there is any oily build up on it... It is my understanding that the evaporator issue has been addressed to some extent on the second generation of LH vehicles.

The line in question runs from the expansion valve to the compressor. It is fairly easy to replace and does not require taking out the dash as it is entirely an under-the-hood job. You just need to take off the windshield wiper arms, cowl covers and the bar that spans two strut towers. Then you just need to remove air-filter housing and the related ductwork that runs to the throttle body and you are ready to replace the line (provided that the system has been evacuated). Should take a shop about an hour to two hours of labor to do that... The failure of the suction line is apparently very common.

The evaporator replacement is a lot trickier as it involves removing the dashboard in addition to performing the tasks listed above as well as draining your car's cooling system. So it will probably take the shop 7-10 hours to do that. You are probably looking for $500-900 in labor for this.

Hope this helps...

Thanks.

What is your source for that? The evaporator failure is very common on the 2nd gen. LH's - that's clear from reading the 300M Club and

forums.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Just cracked 20,000 miles on my wifes 2000 3ooM. Why does the condensor fail ? poor design ?

The car has spent most of its life in the garage, especially in the winter. Every six months or so I have to wipe off a white haze on the vinyl dash with cleaner. I've noticed alot of 3ooM's left outdoors seem to have tears and cracks in the vinyl dash around the passenger side air bag. |

BTW,

for some reasonably active forums, and good information.

Clint

It's the evaporator (the coils under the dash) that frequently fails - not the condensor (the coils in front of the radiator). If it fails often, by definition, it would be due to poor design, though I don't know the mechanism of failure. I think someone on the 300M forums who had seen one after removal speculated that it was due to moisture collecting at the bottom and never drying out and thus corroding over time - sounds credible to me. I'll be looking at mine sometime soon - I have the new parts sitting in a box in my living room floor to go into my '99 Concorde.

I haven't heard that it was due to them being left out doors, but it has been discussed a lot on the 300M Club forums

and it is understood there that the grooves molded into the hidden side of the dash cover to provide the tear lines for when the passenger bag deploys were made too deep by the vendor, leaving the tear lines too weak so that they split under normal use. Unfortunately Chrysler does not acknowledge what is clearly a manufacturing defect, but that habit appears to plague many car manufacturers these days. Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

andwww.dodgeintrepid.netforums.

I might be wrong, but I was under the impression that they redesigned evaporators slightly since they extended warrantly (abeit not in a very useful fashion) on the first gen LH cars. Here in the rust belt, the suction lines fail usually within 3-4 years -- due to the salt and other road junk accumulating in the cavity under the suction line where it runs along the rail. A while back, I was trying to figure out what would be the likely causes of the AC failure in second generation LH cars, as I was debating if it was worthwhile to replace our first gen LH vehicles with the newer (used) second gen LHs, having experienced the joy of evap failures on the first gen LHs. So, I just drove around 4-5 dealerships in the area and chatted with techs -- they all seemed to indicate that suction lines were the primary culprits, followed by evaps and/or fluid lines. So I also called around parts departments of the dealerships to see what they had in stock... They all had suction lines in stock, but none of them were stocking evaps (may be though this was due to the fact that it would be an overnight job anyways, and the part could be ordered).

Of the three LH cars that I have around, on two suction lines were already replaced before I bought them (I pulled service history from the dealership where the previous owner used to take them in an effort to figure out whether the timing belts were replaced), no evap failures thus far, though the oldest one is a 2000.

So, I guess, I do not have a good source, just more of a hunch...

Alex

Hmmm - I wonder where you learned about that? LOL!

So is your M still doing well after the repair?

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Don't ask... My M has kind of a lemony scent...

Just got it back from the shop. It's leaking coolant from the thermostat housing area. The shop says they weren't playing in that area at all, so they're not responsible (timing belt and #5 piston side head gasket replacement). And I had the air conditioner re-charged since it's supposed to get up to 30 degrees here for the first time this year (80+) and I was just getting "cool" air, not cold. I'm hoping the evaporator isn't on the way out, but the way things are going, who knows. If it is the evaporator, I'll probably try some form of sealant first, then try finding a wrecker version of the evaporator.

Cl>

Would not risk it with a junk yard part for this one -- new part is around $110USD online, you can probably get it at an autoparts store for $150-170 USD. Given the labor charge for the job, it is well worth it to use a KNOWN GOOD PART.

Just 2 cents worth of advice....

Alex

Re: Coolant leak -- there is a bleeder screw for the coolant system that the shop HAD TO TOUCH in the thermostat housing area when they were refilling it with coolant (otherwise you would wind up with an airpocket in the system and the car would be overheating). Make sure that it is not leaking from the screw...

Alex

Sorry, I didn't post a complete history... About two weeks ago, I blew the head gasket on the car, after owning it for only a month. So when I said the shop said they weren't in that area, it was in reference to the head gasket work, not the refilling of the a/c.

Clint

Condensor? I've never heard of the condensor failing. Evaporator- definitely and you could argue its a design problem, but its more a materials problem in that carmakers have switched to aluminum evaporators for R-134a systems, and they corrode more easily than the old brass/copper cores.

Condensors fail when small rocks punch holes in them, and the low nose of the LH cars and open intake below the bumper tend to increase the odds of that happening. I'm utterly amazed that our LH has gone 247,000 miles *without* catching a rock in just the wrong place. The lower 1/3 of the evaporator looks battered to hell, but its still intact.

^^^^^^^^

I think you meant condenser, but typed evaporator! You've had very good luck with the AC on that vehicle.

Bob

Not so. The thermostat is not where you think it is. The thermostat is down low on the driver's side of the engine. The bleeder you're talking about *is* on top front of the engine - right where the thermostat traditionally is - but *NOT* on these engines. However - you are correct about checking the bleeder screw for not leaking.

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Ok but the bleeder screw could have been leaking for 2 weeks and you might not have noticed. Still something to check.

Now he's got you doing it! :)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

Thank you Bill,

I just *ASSUMED* that it would be there -- thank you for pointing it out -- assumptions are a dangerous thing...

Take care,

Alex