How to: Air Con removal
Posted: Tue Jan 31, 2012 1:15 pm
These are snippets taken from and old thread of mine on LB back when I removed mine. This really is a case of standing over your engine bay and tracking the pipework around the bay and seeing the best and easiest way to remove it. (Being our engine bays vary quite a bit depending on whether you have ABS, cruise control etc or not, means the methods used may very as well.) But honestly, if you have an ounce of technical know how, this is very simple to do 
...Well the belt fit perfectly
It's a "Gates" Micro-V XF belt from Motor Factors. And the code again was 6PK913.
Here's a picture of everything I removed from under the bonnet...
And here's how much of a wait save it is
...
That's 12.4kg just in case you can't make it out
... It took me about an hour, but that's because I was cleaning as I was going ... That even included wire-brushing heads of bolts til they glowed 
I'd say you could easily do it within half an hour tho
I didn't cut any of the pipework either. I unscrewed all the connections and threaded them through, so that added time as well. I don't know why I didn't cut them as they're unusable now anyway, and I'm never putting it back again I'm just odd 
The only thing that gave a bit of a fight as well so you know, was the larger of the two connections into the bulkhead... It was easy to start with, but then appeared to seize, as if the threads were chewed. But it turned out to be PTFE'd... and it lost in the end You just have to be persistent
One tip when releasing the gas (Not that I did as this is illegal ) Is to use the obvious release valve in front of the manifold/dizzy, and to use a 500ml bottle (I found an empty Cherry Coca-Cola one to work the best )... Push a small screw-driver in one side of the neck (about 2-3cm down) Then insert the neck of the bottle over the valve and use the end of the screw-driver to release the valve. I also bound the neck/valve in an old rag as well. That way, you prevent p!$$ing the compressed gas/fluid all over your engine
Then what I said on PUK...
You don't really need a how-to to remove the air-con. If you have an ounce of technical know-how it's easy. The only thing really is it's illegal to release the gas into the atmosphere. You're supposed to get it de-gassed by a professional (... The release valve is just behind the rad though if you were wondering ).
The pipes you can consider a right off and just flex/bend them to get them out. Everything else is unbolt-able to remove. Plain sailing really.
Mine was extra easy to remove as the only extra my car has was the aircon itself, but if you have luxuries like ABS and cruise-control then you may find things a little more awkward. All I suggest is standing over your engine bay and literally following the aircon parts to plan your methods.
And then what Merlin said on PUK...
...Well the belt fit perfectly
It's a "Gates" Micro-V XF belt from Motor Factors. And the code again was 6PK913.Here's a picture of everything I removed from under the bonnet...
And here's how much of a wait save it is
...That's 12.4kg just in case you can't make it out
... It took me about an hour, but that's because I was cleaning as I was going
... That even included wire-brushing heads of bolts til they glowed I'd say you could easily do it within half an hour tho I didn't cut any of the pipework either. I unscrewed all the connections and threaded them through, so that added time as well. I don't know why I didn't cut them as they're unusable now anyway, and I'm never putting it back again
I'm just odd The only thing that gave a bit of a fight as well so you know, was the larger of the two connections into the bulkhead... It was easy to start with, but then appeared to seize, as if the threads were chewed. But it turned out to be PTFE'd... and it lost in the end
You just have to be persistent One tip when releasing the gas (Not that I did as this is illegal
) Is to use the obvious release valve in front of the manifold/dizzy, and to use a 500ml bottle (I found an empty Cherry Coca-Cola one to work the best )... Push a small screw-driver in one side of the neck (about 2-3cm down) Then insert the neck of the bottle over the valve and use the end of the screw-driver to release the valve. I also bound the neck/valve in an old rag as well. That way, you prevent p!$$ing the compressed gas/fluid all over your engine Then what I said on PUK...
You don't really need a how-to to remove the air-con. If you have an ounce of technical know-how it's easy. The only thing really is it's illegal to release the gas into the atmosphere. You're supposed to get it de-gassed by a professional (... The release valve is just behind the rad though if you were wondering
). The pipes you can consider a right off and just flex/bend them to get them out. Everything else is unbolt-able to remove. Plain sailing really.
Mine was extra easy to remove as the only extra my car has was the aircon itself, but if you have luxuries like ABS and cruise-control then you may find things a little more awkward. All I suggest is standing over your engine bay and literally following the aircon parts to plan your methods.
And then what Merlin said on PUK...
Merlin wrote:As said the under bonnet is easy, just get rid of it. Do this first. Try and chop the pipes that go through the firewall as close to the fire wall as you can.
Under the dash you need to drop the glove box to get to the evaporator. The bolts for the evaporator are shown below:
Once the bolts are out, grab the evaporator housing and pull as hard as you can. The evaporator housing will slide out bringing with it the pipes that go through the fire wall and the rubber grommet.
Open the evaporator housing and remove the internal contents:
Duct tape the holes on the side of the evap unit and replace it under the dash. Duct tape the holes in the firewall.
Remeber when removing the AC pump to remove the pump bracket
You need this belt (6PK913) to replace your old AC belt:
