Anyone tried 'stop leak' for AC?
 

In a last-ditch effort to save my AC, my mechanic is going to try some 'stop leak' stuff. My evaporator is leaking (will hold charge for a day, but drains overnight).

Anyone had any success with this kind of repair or do you think I'm wasting my time?

I am about to attempt this a friends '87 420SEL. I will let you know how it works. Of course his leak down time was all winter while it sat in storage, so the results might not be all that immediately obvious.....
Also I am throwing in ES12A, the environmentally safe synthetic freon. I will be interested to see how cold it i compaired to regular freon, as I am putting it in my cars as well.
Anyone have any experience w/ this stuff?

-Matt-

I know it is tempting to try this.
I wouldn't do it. Could make a mess of other components, and leave you worse off than before.

Also, 'alternative' refrigerants are not advised for so many reasons, which I will not get into again here.

That said, the Hydrocarbon stuff is probably the least likely of the lot to do irreversible damage.

I figure I'll give it a go, even if it does bugger up the other components it doesn't bother me as I can't afford the $2800 to replace the evaporator anyway. I'll just have to move somewhere with less humidity. :)

A/C systems work under very high pressures. This stuff isn't going to work, and in fact will gum up the rest of the system too, with untold affect. If you use it, don't expect your a/c system to work properly ever again (without a complete rebuild).

Bad idea. Just fix the part thats broken.

GregS

DON'T waste money & many more parts in the near future.

I don't believe in mechanic-in-a-bottle solutions. They're designed for masking problems before a sale, not for long term fix.

PLEASE!!! I'M PLEADING WITH YOU!!!! DON'T DO IT!!!!

Sooner or later, somebody will most likely go to recover refrigerant into their recovery machine and it will WRECK IT!!!!! Not to mention it wrecking all the other components in your system.

What year and model do you have? This is money down the tube plus potentially MANY problems and heartaches for some poor guy that might wreck his expensive equipment somewhere down the line. That poor guy is probably just a working stiff like you and me. He's just trying to buy groceries and a pair of shoes for the baby.

PLEASE, don't use this snake oil. Save your money. Maybe you need groceries or shoes for YOUR baby.

If it's a last ditch effort, and it won't work anyway, save that money and save a little more, buy an evaporator and put it in.

Please don't use this junk!

Didn't Jim F use some sort of stuff to try and stop the leak in the evaporator in his S500V?

Wonder what was the final outcome? Maybe I'll fire up a search...

What about Cliplight Super Seal Pro? I have heard many successful stories about it from a mechanic with long history with imports.

The quick-fix cure for your A/C will trash the entire system in short order. I had it happen to me a few years ago, and several others I know have had it happen too. As someone has mentioned, it is designed for those shady car lots who get cars with non-functional A/C in. When you test drive, you notice that the A/C doesn't work,and they tell you that it must just need a charge. Their mechanic fills it full of leak-stop and charges it. You are happy for a week or 2. The compressor then packs it in. The place you bought it then tells you to deal with the 3rd party warranty company, which may or may not cover it. In any case, the lot purchased a car cheap with bad A/C, and sold it to you at top dollar, and they don't have to pay for the repairs.
PLEASE, PLEASE, don't let that crap anywhere near your car, for the sake of your own pocketbook and that of the next poor mechanic who unsuspectingly works on it with his expensive vacuum equipment.