94 E320 Evaporator Replacement Procedure?
 

Has anyone documented the procedure to replace the famed problematic evaporator on 94 E's? I'm not expriencing any problems yet, I'm the original owner and now have 110k miles on the vehicle. I've maintained ths car religiously, its pristine aside from failing paint(tiny fractures) which appear as THOUSANDS of scratches. I'm at a crossroads with this car, whether to sell and move on or attend to any and all mechanical and cosmetic needs. Friends tell me NOT to sell the car, and leave the paint alone...I'm undecided at this juncture.

Sorry for getting a little off topic...is the Evaportar prodcedure documented anywhere? Thanks in advance for the advice...this forum has been immensely helpful guiding me in replacing the enbgine harness. Did that last night, went perfectly.

Ive never done one on a 320 before. But I have done them on lots of different cars and I dont think it's really that big a deal once you get going. Just look at it as a series of small projects. You can remove the steering wheel right? How about the center console? It should be no problem. next remove the glove box that should be easy as well. Well guess what after those steps your 1/3 the way there.

Is the Evaporator something that goes bad on "ALL" 94 E's? So far(110K miles) I've had no signs of it being faulty. Is this something I will DEFINATLY experience? I was hoping, perhaps wishful, that mine might be an exception.

The job IS a big deal on the 124 chassis cars. If everything goes really well it will take 15 hours MINIMUM.

The job is documented very well in the Mercedes CD and I would NOT tackle the job without it. You could do it blind without the information, but you will probably ruin a few pieces in the process and make lots of frustration for yourself.

No, not ALL evaporators on these cars fail. My 88 300E has 18 years and almost 300,000 miles with the original evaporator. I have a friend with an earlier model 124 car who also still has the original. A part will get a reputation for failure when it fails in more than 10% of its installations. I don't know what the percentage is in this case, but it is certainly above the 10% number.

Have a great day,

Thanks very much for the answer. So there is hope that I might NOT have to face this repair. I have an early 94 so maybe I'll get lucky. Thanks again...

My 91 300E is on the original evap as well. Although the system does leak, it only requires 1 or *maybe* 2 cans top-off per year (here in TX you pretty much need AC from April to October, hence the *maybe* 2 cans). That equates to only $15 - $30 per year so I just top off from my supply. If it ever gets worse I'll start chasing the leak down...

Yes I had a 94 E320 with 242k miles on it when I sold it and it was on its original evap and never lost an once of juice. Its now residing in Los Angeles and doing fine! :)
Chris

Thanks, great to hear this encouragement. I'm original owner of my 94 E320, I have it regularly serviced and to my knowledge it's NEVER had an ounce of freon added as yet. So maybe I'm in the LUCKY group...I was trying to understand if some E's of my year/vintage were witout the problem. sounds like there are some that are ok. Thanks again.

I had to replace the evaporator in the 93 at around 90K. The 95 has 117K on it and the A/C is still doing fine. Took me around 18 hours to do the 93 with no prior experience.

I'd like to emphasize, though mine has a slow leak I'm not saying it is from the evaporator. It's just too small a leak for me to feel that I need to chase it down. If I ever find where it's leaking I'll report back.