theneedmachine

iTrader: (1)

Just wanted to share my insulation and "Made in China" a/c component install experience with anyone thinking they want to stay real cool for the upcoming summer. I dont know much of anything about a/c and have been to intimidated to mess with it. Couldnt find too many reviews or info on all the Chinese stuff, but oem stuff was crazy expensive.... Ill update this thread to letcha know how they perform over the next couple summers. (if they last that long)



I finally decided it was getting too hot. First I installed 2 mute my ride insulation kits, Dropped my roof temp 30 degrees. I think the floor temp dropped 25 or so degrees. Sound deadening was decent.

Heres a stop motion of the install:
I watched some youtube videos and read a lot of stuff on Honda-tech about ac installs. I was real worried about how to flush out my system and humidity or moisture getting into the system. I talked to a buddy who works for the postal service, servicing their vehicles. He told me that he went to an hvac course recently where they actually added water to the a/c system to see if it would jack up anything.. said it didnt mess up anything. Not that you shouldnt try to keep out moisture, he just told me that its not as big of a deal as its made out to be.

I pulled every line out of my car, and blew out all the old oil in the lines with my air compressor.. replaced every o-ring on the system and then covered all the ends with rags to keep out as much moisture as I could.

Replacing the evaporator core was actually really easy and only took about 20 minutes. The chinese stuff is not built exactly to spec, so I had to bend the lines a little to make everything fit.





Heres all the old components and line pulled out, only line I didnt pull out was the one that runs across the front of the condenser. I was still able to blow out all the old oil easily and replace the o-ring at the fitting between the condenser and front bumper.




Using PAG 46 oil in my 94 civic hatch it calls for:

condenser 2/3 oz
evaporator core 1 1/2 oz
lines 1/3 oz
drier 1/3 oz
a/c compressor 4 oz

Car insulation $110

I got a chinese a/c compressor and dryer with a 1 year warranty: $150 shipped

complete a/c O- ring kit for $12.00 shipped

condensor $45

evaporator core $48.50

expansion valve $14.00

Payed a tech to pull a vacuum and charge system $75

A/C is blowing crazy cold, so far so good. Hope this helps someone. From start to finish took 2 hours and 45 minutes... which in that time period I even repainted my condensor fan shroud.

Hope this helps someone.

Gunmetal_B20_Hatch

iTrader: (9)

Amazing work! Looks like you paid very close attention to detail.

eBay stuff isnt all THAT bad as people make it out to be... Just have a bit of common sense and dont expect the parts to be OE quality. Most of the time these Chinese knock-off parts get a bad rep is because of some kids hack-job broke-*** budget installation. Glad to see everything is working out well for you!