How to Replace an AC Compressor in your Car

hey guys chrisfix here and today I'm going to show you how to replace an air conditioning compressor in your car or truck if you haven't seen my video where I use one of these simple do at home kits with a UV dye in it to check for leaks in your system I'll leave that video link in description and what we found is that the compressor is leaking so this seal right here on the old compressor is leaking which means we need to replace the compressor or rebuild it in this case we're going to replace it now compressors could be pretty expensive where I got my compressor is actually a pretty good deal and I'll leave the link to where I got my compressor in description so you could check it out for yourself not normally doing compressor work or working with the air conditioning system in your car scares people away especially do-it-yourselfers but I'm going to tell you right now you do need some specialized tools for example you're getting need a set of manifold gauges just like this but it cost me 50 bucks and any special equipment I'll leave in a link in the description it's going to be way cheaper to do this yourself then bring it to a mechanic and I'm going to show you the right way to do it so you could do it yourself at home now in this video we're specifically working on replacing the air conditioning compressor the next video which I'll have a link to as well in the description will be how to charge your whole air conditioning system after you replace your compressor or after you find your leak and you fix it but for this video we're specifically working on replacing the compressor so let's begin so here all the tools you're going to need to do the job you need a socket set with extensions and a ratchet a breaker bar for those stubborn bolts a torque wrench and here are some tools that you might need depending on your vehicle you might need a metal wire brush to clean the bolt threads some Loctite a socket universal joint to get to those hard-to-reach bolts and I use a serpentine belt tool to help get the belt off but you could just use a regular ratchet or your breaker bar and those are all the basic tools you're going to need to replace a compressor so let's begin the first step is going to be to make sure your system is evacuated completely of refrigerant you can see here my low-pressure side is 0 psi and my high-pressure side is 0 psi so there is no refrigerant in this system at all if you have refrigerant in your system don't let it leak out take it to a mechanic they pump it out they recycle it this stuff isn't good for you it isn't good for the environment so try to do it responsibly so after your system is completely evacuated now we could go down to the bottom of the engine here and start working on getting the compressor out just like the video I did with replacing the alternator wherever the compressor is is going to be how difficult it is to get out in this case the compressors buried so it's going to be more difficult but in some cases the compressors right at the top of the engine which makes it really easy for example in my Corvette the air conditioning compressor is right at the top right here look how easy this is to get to you take some bolts off to get it off the bracket you pull the compressor out you put the new one in boom done so how easy it is to get to the compressor will really dictate how hard it is to replace it so since our compressor is all the way down there Toyota was kind enough to provide an access port on the side here and you can see the compressor is right over there so we're going to go take the wheel off and we'll have good access to the compressor now with the car safely jacked up supported by jack stands let's remove the tire and slide it under the car so now we'll take off this rubber cover here to get access to the compressor I'll be using a panel clip pliers which will make sure these little panel clips don't break now you can see we have easy access right to the compressor we can get to all the bolts especially the bolts to take the hoses off the bolts to remove the compressor and the electrical connections as always take a look at your new part and it'll give you an idea what you need to do you can see there's one two three and then right down here four bolts that mount this compressor to the engine and then we have one two which are the two hoses go in a high and low pressure and then we have our single electrical connection another thing I should mention is right here it says the compressor is filled with 5.7 ounces of peg 46 oil you want to make sure your compressor either comes with the oil built-in or you have to add the oil yourself it's easier to find a compressor with oil that is already in it so you don't have to measure stuff if you don't boil the compressor you're pressors just going to blow out and you're wasting your time so make sure you have the correct amount of oil in it or just get a pre-world compressor just like this the first thing we're going to do is disconnect these hoses here in this case I'm using an extension with a 12 millimeter that's one we're just going to move this out of the way if you want get a piece of paper towel and shove it in there so you don't contaminate it this will just prevent debris from getting into the air conditioning lines which is definitely what you don't want next one we'll get is this top one right here these are coming off pretty easy for me you might need a breaker bar but in this case I didn't need one remove this one right here this one's kind of hard to see but I'm again putting a piece of paper towel in here and I'll just move that down and out of the way good now you can see right back there there's an electrical connection that we're going to want to remove to get this connector up you just press down and pull now that the connectors off we'll just move it aside now we're going to go and remove the belt so we take the belt tension off then we have one two three four bolts to get off and the compressor will come out all right up in the engine bay we're going to go right in here so we have a 14 millimeter socket with a little bit of an extension on our serpentine belt tool we're going to remove the belt tension so if we go down the tensioner is located right there if I pull my ratchet this way it removes the belt tension and this allows us to slide the belt off the pulley okay now the belt is loose and out of the way we have four bolts to get to I'm using multiple extensions on my ratchet and it's a 12 millimeter that's one so we just got that bolt out now we want to get this one out the problem is this is in a way so you could actually see if you look through this hole there's the bolt we need to get to on our extension I'm going to be using this Universal joint right here and allow a little bit of flexibility we'll send this right through there's number two now we got the top two bolts off we have to get the bottom two bolts off so to get to that bolt right down there you have to go below the frame like so that's three one more to go so there's one less bolt right down here and we're going to get it out by coming down here underneath the frame again now as I'm unscrewing this notice the compressor is ready to fall right out so just be prepared this last bolt is the only thing holding it in and then there we go now we fish this out of here okay so here's our old compressor here's our nice new one you can see there's only one wiring harness on here so we need to take off from here and all of this and Transplant it under here it's just a matter of loosening two screws to get the harness off simple okay now we could transplant this onto our brand-new compressor this sensor fits in right here easy enough get one of these screws in I'm going to use a nut driver instead of a screw driver because the screw head here is really rusty and pretty much stripped now we'll come over here and this was like that you can see the hole there good this is already pre filled with oil I'm going to keep these on here right now they're just covers you can see a little rubber boot you unscrew these and you'll put the new hoses on once we get it put in as always compare the two parts and they look identical you can see the pulleys stick out the same amount everything is the same so we want to make sure we clean up the threads on these bolts that hold the compressor to the engine this is what the cleaned up ones look like and there's the dirty ones all you have to do is get a metal wire brush and just clean them off just like that alright with all the bolts clean let's go install that compressor now be careful with the new one because we don't want to damage it and get it in here now we want to get our bolts all four of them we just get a little bit of Loctite this is the blue type is the removable I'm just going to put it right down the threads just like that and what the blue loctite does is it locks it into place just for vibrations not going to be hard to get off but it also protects the threads from corrosion now with our compressor in here we're going to try to get one bolt in so I'm just going to slide that in there we just want to try to thread it in one alright now we're just going to start getting bolts in I'll get the other top bolt in over here good now do the bottom two bolts and tighten that slip this last one in and hand tight and with all them tighten by hand will torque them down so on this compressor we need to tighten that one first then that one down there then that one there and then that one there in that order and each bolt gets torqued to 18 foot pounds that's one that's two three good so all four bolts are torqued down now let's get our electrical connector here good make sure that pops in and it did now we just have to attach the hoses put the belt on and we are done all right so the next thing we're going to do take off these pieces here pop off the covers you can hear it's kind of pressurized in there that's to make sure that no moisture gets in Moisture is a big killer for air conditioning systems if you're replacing the compressor and your compressor doesn't come with these washer seals you want to make sure that you get the washer seals don't skip on this step because this could cause your compressor to leak and all this work will be for nothing so the washer seals are on our lines this is the high-pressure line we take this off you can see the washer seals right there we get our low-pressure line take off the seal on that one here's the old compressor they'll fit right here and right here and seal it now you don't want to install these dry what you want to do is get a q-tip use the oil from the air conditioning system and just lubricate the o-rings and these are all oiled up and ready to be installed now we could slide the new washer seal right on small one fits on the small line nice and tight which is good and this larger one will slide right on to the larger line nice and tight all the way down now we're going to go tighten down our air conditioning lines right into the compressor so we get the high pressure line which is on the bottom here and we'll just hand tighten this screw in there it's important that you line the hose up into the hole correctly so that it seats properly so there's no leaks we'll do the same exact thing for the other hose now we're going to take our torque wrench and we're going to go in here and torque these down to 14 foot-pounds of torque good make sure you don't over tighten these because the compressor is aluminum and you'll just strip the threads that's why we're torquing it okay now we'll get the belt on it's the same as taking it off you just turn the tensioner and slip the belt over the pulley and when you let go the pulley it tightens the belt automatically let's not forget about this right here it just has these clips that you push right in and that's all there is to it that's how you replace an air conditioning compressor it's all done all you have to do is put the wheel back on I don't need to show you that the next step will be to charge the AC system and that'll be in the next video since it takes a few steps to do it properly hopefully this video is helpful if it was remember to give it a thumbs up and if you're not a subscriber consider subscribing up on the screen are videos related to the AC system such as recharging the system with refrigerant to get to those videos you can click on the screen or find the link in the description along with the links to all the tools and the AC compressor I used in this video

Channel: ChrisFix

Views: 4,522,730

Keywords: Air Conditioning (Industry), ac compressor, air conditioning compressor, ac compressor clutch, ac recharge, airconditioning & refrigeration basics, ac compressor replacement, toyota ac compressor replacement, How to remove and replace an AC Compressor, ac compressor cluctch replacement, how to fix my cars air conditioner, how to fix an air conditioner, ac doesnt blow cold, car wont blow cold air, ford ac compressor, honda ac compressor, ac compressor clutch fix

Id: rulXlnG2Unk

Length: 13min 53sec (833 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 31 2015