I have a 1995 Acura TL 2.5L. For the past couple years the AC has not been working. Had it tested and the mechanic and believes that the expansion valve is bad. He asked if I wanted it fixed becuase it good run up over a $1,000 to fix it. I said no thanks.

After two summers of no AC I am tired of the heat and am not going to go through another summer without AC. So I got out the service manual and decided to dive into the pool.

I was able to get to expansion valve thru the drivers side. But now that I have exposed the expansion valve I am confused as to how to replace it and the manual is somewhat vague.

I don't know where the capillary tubes go to. Do I need to remove the evaporator to get to these tubes? I was hoping I could do everything from the drivers side and not get into the glove compartment side.

Help...just trying to save a couple bucks.

Ben

 

The expansion valve is a bitch to replace, and yes the manual is vague. I know for a fact that you do not need to remove the evaporator to replace it. From I remember, the expansion valve has only two bolts on each end, no?

 

Thanks. I can get to the 2 nuts that hold it on. My problem is I can't see where the two capillary tubes coming off the expansion valve go.

 

I hate to ask but what were your symptoms. AC fully charged but no cooling or other?

Expansion valve can cause lack of cooling by allowing too much refrigerant to flood the evaporator, or too little refrigerant to allow proper cooling.

Looking at the shop manual, I agree the expansion valve can be removed w/o extracting the evaporator. It is not clear where the pressure reference bulbs are located, presumably on the hi and low pressure lines under the insulation.

good luck

 

Fully charged, would cool for about 5-10 minutes and then it would stop cooling. Compressor seems to be working fine.

 

It could be expansion valve, but could also be ATC system. Did you try operating in manual mode w/ same results?

Another possibility is too large clutch plate gap. As engine/compressor warm the gap increases slightly and magnetic field is weaker. At some point the clutch fails to close and AC system becomes inop. If the compressor was engaged and running when loss of cooling was present, this was not the problem.

In any case, you should replace the expansion valve since you accessed the site. Hopefully, a new expansion valve will fix.

good luck

 

I had previously replaced the ATC console since that was one of the easier items to do first. But I still had the same issue.

Yes I have ran the AC in manual mode with the same results.

Yesterday I decided to run the AC and watch what happens to the expansion valve. Well while the AC was blowing cold 1/2 of the expansion valve was warm the and the other half got cold and even starting getting a layer of ice crystals on.

Then the AC stops blowing cold. I think I remember one of the mechanics who looked at this stating there could be some piece of metal, debris, etc. in the system and it moves around then gets stuck somewhere, pressure builds and the clutch disengages and shuts down the system. There may be something to that because now after viewing the expansion valve I don't think that is the problem (and I still have no idea how to replace the capillary tubes from the EV).

Thoughts??? I think I am getting real close to donating this car to our church!

 

I'm 99.5% sure that it is the expansion valve as I had the EXACT symptoms that you have. And so you don't donate the car I can tell you that once you replace the valve and get the the system recharged your AC will be blow arctic wind in your face! After I got mine fixed the cooling power was ridiculous. I had my mechanic do it for me so I can't really help all that much, but he did say that it was a pain in the ass.