greendragon

I am new to this forum and have some questions.

Hi All, I have 96 Accord which a/c hose has ruptured and requires replacing. The dealership has quoted $400.00 to replace and install the hoses and re-gas.

Can anyone provide instructions on how to locate the a/c hoses - I understand the hoses are in the engine bay as well as behind the dashboard (!) - and how to replace along with estimated costs of parts. And secondly how much it would cost to re-gas.

I would appreciate any help.

Thanks all.

Myroslav

I do not think your a/c lines are bad. There are nothing that can happen to them (except for accident damage). The only think that comes to my mind is the hose that allows the condensed moisture to escape from the evaporator. It is behind your glovebox and mine costed me 15$. I didn't go to dealer to buy it. Just bought one of the same diameter. In order to acces it you are going to need to remove your glovebox and its mounting. It is a little bit tight, but you should be able to access it with your hand. I had a link for some pictures, but deleted it. I'll try to find it...

greendragon

You're kidding me?! $15.00 and its that simple? How do the dealers get away with charging $400.00? I think it has to be more to it than that. Or is there?

Myroslav

Well, my mother tounge is not english, but as far as i know hose would be something made of rubber (or wouldnt) and the a/c system on your accord has only 1 rubber hose which is the one that i described. Otherwise your a/c lines are bad, but they are made of some kind of stainless metal substance and i do not know what could have damaged them.

Recharging of the system should cost you around 100 $, - but try searching for some private shops in order to get that price.

greendragon

Thank you for such a prompt response!

Myroslav

No problem. But what was the reason you went to the dealer?

deserthonda

yo MYRO, what are you smoking???of course a/c lines can go bad i have replace a **** load of them ,,there are 2 hoses that come out of compressor ..suction and discharge hose,,, usually the discharge is the 1 that gose bad because of higher pressure ..there are also a/c lines ( metal lines ) those could go bad at times as well but not a common thing unless battery acid falls on them and corrodes them

howevwer $ 400 is a bit too much for an a/c hose...... find out exactly what you need and repost here

greendragon

Thank Deserthonda. I went to the dealer in the first place because the ac stopped working. They fixed it and then in a couple of days, it stopped again. They had a closer look and discovered that the hose is touching the engine thus causing the damage. I checked into further details since posting. So not only do these need to be replaced but it must be prevented from recurring somehow in the future.

Deserthonda, you say that you have changed many of these, how do I go about doing this? What are the parts I need? Where can I get them? And how much? What can I do to prevent this from recurring?

deserthonda

hello green ,,,you might want a shop to do job you need tools to evacuate and recharge system + put a/c system under vaccum for a while before you can add freon ,first of all you need to find out why hoses are touching engine??? are these the hoses coming off the compressor?? they should be far from the engine ,,do you have non stock parts installed?? was car in a frt accident...
well to replace hoses first of all you need to evac your a/c system assuming you got freon still in it if you got no tools to do so you might want a shop to do so .., if system is empty need to get hoses factory parts get them at dealer they fit good , they should come with seals at end of it
as for how much you have to call dealer and ask for prices make sure you get price on proper hoses to replace them is pretty easy ,, you might want to do job yourself and have a shop just add freon lucky for you your system takes r134a freon the cheaper kind..
as to what you can do to prevent it?? i cannot tell for sure i would have to look at car to see why hoses are hitting engine like i said earlier they should be far from it .....did shop say why hoses are hitting your engine???

deserthonda

1 more thing i just thought of this must be a pretty shitty shop why did they not discover that hoses where tuching engine when they first worked on it 2 days earlier ,,i would bitch at service mamager and demand they do it for free they should have taken a closer look in the first place ,,