Well I had a great time at last weekend’s Mercedes Day at the Griffith’s Park cars and coffee. I got to match faces with names after many years.

Unfortunately my evaporator sprung a leak on the way back. I verified it last night with a $20 halide gas detector from Amazon. These work so well I was able to find the leak in the resealable valve on my California r134a can. It had a tiny leak. So I snooped the entire car and the gas is combing out of my vents. I played with the sensitivity of the tool and it’s clear the leak gets bigger when the compressor is on. I’m done.

I looked around and to my horror the w123 evaporator is NLA. Massive freakout. It was just four years back I saw them on the Pelican site. Now I can gripe about it in the NLA thread but I’m still done.

Any ideas where to look for a new coil? I want new. No way am I putting some pitted corroded 40yo evaporator from the JY into my car. That’s just dumb. Too much work to R&R.

My options so far are 1) leak seal but my leak is probably too big, 2) Frankenstein a coil off another car or use a hot rod universal coil, 3) Chinese under dash AC unit bolted into the passenger kick space, 4) roll down the windows.

My teenager is going to drive this car so he may get option 4. My luck that kid will soon wreck the car. I drove around from 18-25 in a Volvo P1800 with no AC. It was an oven. In LA, Bakersfield and Palo Alto. AC was still an option in the 80s. My son is looking at me like I’m telling him I walked ten miles in the snow to go to school.

I’m weighing my options now.

This is life. It’s just a car. An old car at that. Things break and then we get new things. I think somebody told me that here many years ago. No sense in crying about it.

Several times in my life I’ve gotten a few nudges or kicks to change direction. Maybe this is the kick.

__________________
79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

Check with Klima Design Works, Matt was having new evaporators made but his site does show out of stock at the moment. Matt makes nice AC kits and other upgrades for the 123 chassis.

__________________
1968 230 W110 +3.5 M116 & 4-Speed Manual
1985 300TDT S123
1985 500SEC C126

That’s awesome! I saw the item on his site but I thought they were NLA. I will drop him a line. I didn’t know he was actually making them.

__________________
79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

Sorry I missed this, I seem to keep missing the meet & greets, I used to love going to them .

This morning I threw out and N.O.S. AC condenser, I like the larger ones Rich hipped me to and no one seems to actually want any arts unless they're free .

Please let us know if Matt is able to sort you out .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Matt just emailed and said the evaporator is NLA. He suggested I put in a JY unit.

__________________
79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

I have a couple units already pulled from the cars. $100 each just private message me.

__________________

All Diesel Fleet
1985 R107 300SLD TURBODIESEL
2005 E320 CDI (daily)

LOTS of parts for sale!


EGR block kit
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/355250-sale-egr-delete-block-off-plate-kit.html

1985 CA emissions 617 owners- You Need This!
Sanden style A/C Compressor Mounting Kit for your 616/ 617 For Sale + Install Inst.

Sanden Instalation Guide (post 11):
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/diesel-discussion/367883-sanden-retrofit-installation-guide.html

Thanks Rich. I haven’t quite decided on which way to go yet.

I’m starting to realize R&Ring the evaporator isn’t all that bad a job labor wise. Or I’m trying to convince myself I’m capable of pulling it off. If I do go with a used evaporator I’m going to have to leak test it before I install it.

Hmmm…I think I can hook it up and pressurize it before putting it in the car. But then there’s the issue of longevity. I don’t know.

There is another idea I’m tossing around which is hacking a Jeep Wrangler evaporator into the air box. They look close. With a saw, foam, custom hoses and some 3D printing I might just be able to pull this off. I did something like this on my 65 Ford F100 and it actually worked.

It may be a useful DIY project to trailblaze for the gang here. This is going to be a problem as far as I can see forward.

I got all excited this morning because I found this NZ website with a w123 evaporator on it. But something is wrong. It’s a mirror image of what I want. Maybe left hand drive?

https://www.tinkr.co.nz/product/534136/evaporator-coil-mercedes-w123-ev3023

__________________
79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

Decisions decisions. This is what I've come up with for now.

There are a lot of extenuating circumstances that have driven me to this. NLA new evaporator. Car is for my kid who just failed his test at the DMV on Wed. A very bad sign.

I realized I better stop investing so much in this car.

So it is what it is.


Interesting tidbit. This leak detector is really sensitive. I put in the sealer and the beeping went from alarming all the time to just a blip here and there coming out of my vents. The sealer has apparently slowed things down.

But there is no quantitative indication as to how much. I guess I have to wait a few days to see if the system goes flat. I clearly haven't completely plugged the leak but the beeping wand suggests that the amount of 134a in the vent is less. I can play with the sensitivity knob and get an idea of relative amounts required to trigger the device.

Oddly I tried this on my SD. I consider that car to be very tight. It has maintained a charge since its conversion some years ago by the PO. Ten years under my ownership I topped off once with three ounces of 134a. And oddly, I get the electronic detector going off when I stick it in the vent when I set it to the highest sensitivity. I guess there is a tiny tiny leak in there. Must be insignificant.

What I'm saying is I have no idea how severe the leak is in my blue 300D now that I added the goo into the system. Yes it is worse than the 300SD on a relative scale. But I don't know how fast it's leaking out. Stay tuned. My luck we are not done yet.

__________________
79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

You know… there’s always 12a

The stop leak combined with those larger molecules? You may find yourself out of the woods entirely.

__________________
1981 240D 4sp manual. Ivory White.

Interesting and thanx for the update .

So, now you've added the stop leak, is it actually cold at the vents ? .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

Shern…yup, also 12a runs at a lower pressure. My leak gets worse when the compressor cycles on. Physics, more pressure more flow. It has made me wonder if I exacerbated the situation using 134a. The pressures are much higher than R12 and put extra stress on the evaporator.

Nate - yes it is very cold. I put in the seal and then one can of 134a. It is blowing 43-46F at the vent at 84 F ambient. The big question is how long will that last. It still leaks. Fast or slow I dunno. I’m hoping it’ll improve as I drive it around and the goo moves around in the system.

__________________
79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

Thanx, what are the high and low pressures at idle when it's blowing this cold ? .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

I don’t know. I didn’t use a manifold. I just shot in the refrigerant with a single hose and valve tap on a 134a can.

__________________
79 300TD “Old Smokey” AKA “The Mistake” (SOLD)
82 240D stick shift 335k miles (SOLD)
82 300SD 300k miles
85 300D Turbodiesel 170k miles

Wow .

Good thing you only added one can I think .

__________________
-Nate
1982 240D 408,XXX miles
Ignorance is the mother of suspicion and fear is the father

I did then what I knew how to do ~ now that I know better I do better

From my very limited experience and understanding of AC on these cars, there doesn’t seem to be any penalty for undercharging. As long as there’s enough charge to keep the low pressure switch from firing, the only danger seems to be that your system will run too cold (ha!). Overcharging on the other hand…

__________________
1981 240D 4sp manual. Ivory White.