Decided to see how much trouble it was to remove evaporator on a 124. My friends 90 300D 2.5 turbos evap. was leaking badly, lots of dye out the evap. drains. Got everything apart including evap box without difficulty. Also discovered brushes on blower motor are about gone, so I'll install new motor too.

Hopefully, I labeled and marked all the parts well enough to reinsall without difficultly. Photo below.

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Mine looked like this,,,http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/attachments/tech-help/23280d1105919353-did-evaporator-weekend-airc17-copy.jpg

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95 SL500 Smoke Silver, Parchment 64K
07 E350 4matic Station Wagon White 34K
02 E320 4Matic Silver/grey 80K
05 F150 Silver 44K

There HAS GOT to be a better way then that

When mine was replaced I could not even take a look as they showed me prweviously, another one they were doing on a 320E and it about made me sick.

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95 E420 ( 76K) SOLD
85 380SE(125k)
95 SL500(72k)

I kind of doubt that, but if you find please let everyone know.

Then the $2K is very JUSTIFIED IMO. I hope I never have to deal with that

It DOES look scary though! How long did it take you? Did you brake a lot of small but expensive plastic trims etc?
I really hope my AC leak is not in the evaporator - but then it still might be fun getting at the viscera of the car...
Regards, Bruno

ok ok E320 so I made a transposition mistake.

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95 E420 ( 76K) SOLD
85 380SE(125k)
95 SL500(72k)

Mine leaks about 12 oz. per year (have to put in a can at the beginning of each season). If it is leaking from the evaporator, I'm in no hurry to do this job. I prefer paying about $35/year for R12. I hope it never gets worse...

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08 W251 R350
97 W210 E320
91 W124 300E
86 W126 560SEL
85 W126 380SE Silver
85 W126 380SE Cranberry
79 W123 250
78 W123 280E
75 W114 280

It took about 5 or 6 hours working time which includes taking the evap. box apart. It would not have taken that long had I done one before and had I not labeled nearly every screw and line or wire I disconnected. I broke no expensive parts at all. In fact I broke nothing except a very flimsy plastic piece that goes in a slot to operate the lower vent on the passenger side. It was easily repaired using a screw to fit in the slot and a piece of vacuum hose to connect it to the arm. I used a set of plastic tools, basically different size and shape wedges to pry things apart. Of course I’ve not reassembled anything yet.

Do you have enough pictures to write a DIY?


This would be a very nice topic for a DIY.

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ASE Master Mechanic
asemastermechanic@juno.com

Prototype R&D/testing:
Thermal & Aerodynamic System Engineering (TASE) Senior vehicle instrumentation technician.
Noise Vibration and Harshness (NVH).
Dynamometer.
Heat exchanger durability.
HV-A/C Climate Control.
Vehicle build.
Fleet Durability
Technical Quality Auditor.
Automotive Technical Writer

1985 300SD
1983 300D
1984 190D
2003 Volvo V70
2002 Honda Civic

https://www.boldegoist.com/

No pictures other than the one above. I think it would be hard, at least for me to write a DIY for this job. I would not know what to call each of the pieces I removed in order to properly identify them to someone else. I think that different people will vary the order of what they remove depending on whether they start with the passenger side, the drivers side or the center console.

I just started taking stuff apart in the order that I thought was the most logical, labeling and marking just about everything. Most every screw, bolt or fastner of any kind was put in a small zip loc back and marked.

In summary I think someone who thinks they can do this job in all likehood can.

Photo of seriously leaking evaporator

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What's the green stuff?

Thats what lots of dye looks like.