'93 300e - A/c Condenser Going South?

[renok7]

Hi all,

I had a significant a/c coolant leak on my '93 300E. My mechanic replaced an expansion valve. No more leaks under the hood but I'm still loosing some coolant. Could it be that my condenser is going south. How much are they worth?

Thanks

[400E]

Do you possibly mean your evaporator? They are much more vulnerable than the condensors. The evaporator is inside the car, buried inside the dash; the condensor sits in front of the radiator.

A good AC shop can use a sniffer to see where you're losing refrigerant (not coolant). Hopefully it's not your evaporator, since that is an expensive repair ($1800 US for mine 2 years ago).
If the evaporator is leaking, you might see AC oil dripping from under the car where condensate water normally drips out (happened to me).

[renok7]

400E,

You're right I meant the evaporator. I'll check it out.

Thanks

[400E]

Good luck, and do keep us posted.

Also, there are many posts on bad evaporators, and if you haven't done a search you might want to do so. In particular, there are some recent posts on which replacement evaporator to get (should you need to do so). Used to be that we were told to avoid aluminum evaporators as the factory-installed ones that went bad were aluminum. Now, the wisdom seems to be that using the "official" MB aluminum replacement evaporator is the way to go, since the old, failed ones apparently were a copper-aluminum hybrid and the connection between the two metals was the problem, not the aluminum itself (as I recall).