air conditioner hoses

I need the air conditioner hoses replaced on my 73 450sl. I have had 3 estimates: $800.00 from a recommended air conditioning shop; $1,700 from a good British car mechanic, who says he'd only replace with new MB hoses and fittings; and $875.00 from a Mercedes mechanic, who says he has 10 year old OEM Mercedes hose that isn't made anymore, which he can install using my present fittings. I'm concerned with deterioration of hose after 10 years, but he says the hose is superior to anything made now.

Has anyone had any experience with these things, or any advice?

Also, the Mercedes mechanic says installing one of the hoses requires the steering wheel to be taken off, and the speedometer removed. Is this true?

[Billybob]

You might do a search of the threads on this site I recall a mention of taking the old hose to a hydraulic hose shop and having the original end fittings attatched to a new peice of high pressure hose. With the old hose for comparison finding a suitable replacement hose should be possible. The price difference was impressive $100 vs. $1000. I've also heard of this strategy used to fix oil cooler hoses with a similar savings! Good luck!

[tcane]

Get the old AC lines rebuilt with new hoses. Call around to find a AC supply house that rebuilds hoses for home and business AC units. I had my hoses rebuilt with better quality hose for about $40 for both lines.

Can't tell you about how to install the AC lines and what needs to be removed. I'm sure someone else will know.

Power steering hoses (and other hydraulic hoses) can be rebuilt by a hydraulic supply house or a heavy equipment supply house/repair shop.

Good Luck!
Tom

[stevebfl]

The original hoses on some of those old models used a construction technique quite different than modern hose. It was done much like hydraulic hose. The hose was assembled into its recieving fitting by a combination process. The fitting was bade of two pieces which screwed into one another at the same time one piece screwed into the inside diameter of the hose and the other screwed over the outside.

I am thinking the one guy was going to do this. The hose used in such lines looked to be braided and was usually reddish.

All later versions used crimped fittings. Many shops can cut the crimped section, weld in new barbs and recrimp new hose to specialized formed assemblies. This method is best because most shops able to do this are also using the barrier hose recommended for 134 conversions. We have been doing it that way for about 12 years, not because be planned on converting originally. We did it because the hose worked better.

I just talked to a guy about rebuilding all four of my hoses. He used to have the same car and was familiar with it. Hoses, dryer, change oil in compressor and charge with R134a. $220