[Jawon]

Here's what I bought and here's what I did.

After pulling out as much of the crumbling outer cover as I could, I covered the evaporator with this material. Ran out of material so I wish I had bought the next size up. Will probably buy another to fill in the gaps.

A bit tricky to work with in the tight spot but some strategic cuts help. Adhesive is not super sticky but once you rub it in it seems adequate. I guess time will tell.

Hopefully better than nothing but I worry if the reflective material will make everything ELSE hotter???

Going on a long road trip next week so I will keep my eyes on it.

 

[97cargocrawler]

That should do the trick and I would not give reflected heat another thought. The entire engine compartment will be hot a.f.

 

[01safari]

Are evaporator cores a common place to leak refrigerant? I have a leak that is hard to trace. Dye has been added on several occasions. Rear lines and rear evap are all good. Compressor is dry. No signs of leakage at the condenser.

If I stick an inspection camera in the resister hole, I can see a small wet spot. It has no dye color. Not sure if it's oil, or just condensation. Sniffer in the vent shows nothing either :shrug:

I guess that if I do take it apart, I need to be really careful.

 

[chevymaher]

Use the sniffer on the compressor clutch.

 

[01safari]

I'll give the sniffer a try. I'm not that confident that's it though. There are no signs of dye/oil around the compressor. But that doesn't mean that its not leaking gas.

 

[chevymaher]

Mine didn't show dye there either. It is 3 inches away from the leak the closest place the light will reach. I cranked 100 lbs of pressure in there. The hiss was definitely under the compressor clutch. New compressor haven't had to screw with it for 4-5 years now.

 

[01safari]

Wasn't the evaporator or compressor. Just needed some time to get the dye that far down.

 

[motorahead]

Sorry to revive an old thread, but this seems like a serious problem given we are in 2021 and the only solution is to find the bits in a junkyard. I was installing a new washer/coolant reservoir yesterday and noticed my EVAP cover was crumbling away as well.

I'm wondering if a plastics company might be able to produce a small batch (hundreds maybe) of new covers if they had the originals to work with.

I think I'll make a few calls this coming week, but curious what the interest level would be. However, that $20 insulator for example, would probably cost more.

 

[deafman]

I come back to this thread sometimes.
It's not a bad one to revive, esp. if something's eventually made.

WARNING 🚩
There's a fraudulent websites/companies that pop up when searching these part #s.
I'll avoid typing the name properly, o e m (word for opposite of dogs) . com
Website supposedly tracks down parts collecting dust.
They'll have 3 places who've got this part waiting on you to order.
One of those places is g m p a r t s (word for large person, it'd be Gigante in Spanish)
And they also have a website.

It's just an elaborate scam.
The places who happen to have your part for sale are really the scammer who made the website in the 1st place.
They have a facebook page, every comment is cussing them or from the scammer pretending to be a satisfied customer.
Plenty of complaints about them on the web, get's worse the deeper you look.
Seems that if they send you some kind of part (any part) they can keep it going without being shutd

 

[AstroWill]

I'm wondering if a plastics company might be able to produce a small batch (hundreds maybe) of new covers if they had the originals to work with.

I think I'll make a few calls this coming week, but curious what the interest level would be. However, that $20 insulator for example, would probably cost more.

There is definitely some interest in them. With original parts they could easily be replicated. I had sent a product request to Dorman, maybe if enough people request it.

 

[motorahead]

Didn't know product requests were possible. I just submitted one as well.

If anyone else has not done so, please do! This is the URL I provided in the request for a parts listing, and mentioned the covers specifically.

2004 Chevrolet ASTRO A/C EVAPORATOR & BLOWER MODULE ASM

Diagram of OEM A/C EVAPORATOR & BLOWER MODULE ASM. Contains 7 parts priced between $9.45 and $113.06. Fits 2004 Chevrolet ASTRO.

www.wholesalegmpartsonline.com

 

[deafman]

If I remember correctly, the seals from Steele Rubber came about from a request?
BUT you can find door seals fairly easily to copy / reproduce.

This request would go over better if someone's willing to make a sacrifice.
Offering to send them the part should be included in the request.

We'll come up with the part if and when they respond.

 

[motorahead]

Most definitely. I wouldn't mind scavenging the junk yard for a good donor if it came down to it.

 

[tstarise]

Same problem here. It's now Nov 2021. The plastic literally just crumbles if you touch it. So far I think maybe it's mainly the outer cover but I can't be sure without looking more. If I poke around too much the thing will fall to pieces. A prior owner did a decent black duct tape job on it. I noticed it was cracked. One thing led to another and....well, before I knew it the thing was falling apart on me. I afraid to breath on it now.
Likely one from a junk yard won't be faring much better. If a person could locate one in reasonably decent shape, might be a good candidate for a 3D printer. If it can scan it, it can make it. The lower tech solution would be to fab something using mixed plastics or fiberglass repair. That might be hit or miss.
If you come across a source please FYI me. If I come up with a solution I'll be sure to display it here. As it stands I might need to get deeper into the A/C system at some point and I don't believe this setup is going to hold up.

 

[AstroWill]

If a person could locate one in reasonably decent shape, might be a good candidate for a 3D printer.

If you have the skills to make that happen, you wouldn't even need one in great shape, could always fill in the missing bits digitally and then print the part.

 

[jacobstudabaker65]

Anyway to clean evaporator without removing or get better airflow. My ac works great but the airflow doesn't seem to be the best

 

[tstarise]

I have had good fortune so far as the covers at least getting by. For a vehicle made in 1999 that's saying something. The tape is holding up for now. When it fails I will probably take the path of least resistance and wrap it with something else. I would classify the covers as functional but unstable and not long term dependable. What really surprised me was repairs to get the A/C cooling were very minimal when I expected to hear very bad news.

When I bought this van it had an infestation of stink bugs in it and took quite a long time to be rid of all of them. The reason I bring this up is because I think some of them got into the evaporator area.

I sprayed an odor neutralizer right into the intake with the fan running. Additionally I added a box of baking soda both into the vacuumed and shampooed carpet and an open box in the front area to absorb smells.For the most part this has worked. I once cleaned A/C coils so I was aware of certain cleaners you can spray into the coil fan intake, probably in cooling mode when coil is wet and draining. This might dissolve a lot of whatever is in there unless things are really bad. Additionally one might be able to get at a coil from the top if the top is disintegrated anyhow and rebuild the top.

Probably like many others here I don't have tons of time to be goofing with a vehicle so I try to either get a fairly workable solution or look to pay someone else who does this for a living. Right now everything is working ok (fingers crossed).