Prius a/c evaporator leak

NOT a good plan. Putting that "snake oil" in there might fry the compressor if it isn't already.

Check with another dealer or two......and some independent AC service shops.
Might get it below $1000 but probably not much.....as it is probably labor intensive.

Maybe time to trade ??

 

You are reading way too much into this.
Having a leak in the actual evaporator core is a very UNcommon failure.

Is your curiosity strong enough to risk turning a $1500 repair into a $3000 one....or more.....if that stuff ruins other parts ??

 

Sam give him some good advice I would listen to that one.

Over 300,000 and you only have the evaporator leak.over 300,000 and you only have the evaporator leak. Minicars get evaporator leak it’s not common mini cars get evaporator leak it’s not common. No car company is immune to this problem.
If you were going to purchase a car based on possible evaporator leak in a lot of labor you would have to go to a vehicle labor guide and look up every car you think you wanna purchase and base your purchase on the amount of labor hours it takes for sometime in the future to replace a evaporator. But then that car might have a transmission problem be common on that model for several thousand dollars and then the other car you might pick might have a blown head gasket problem at some point in it’s future.

I have seen people use the stop leak products with very little success.

It mostly worked when it was a slow seeping O-ring in the solvent chemical that they add in the system makes synthetic rubber products swell and this causes them to seal. Then there are other products when they leak out and they get exposed to the moisture and oxygen in the atmosphere at a small seepage they harden up on the outside of the leak.

If you’re a gambling man it’s your choice but you have been warned.

 

If it is a crack in the thin aluminum that comprises the bulk of the structure of the evaporator, no kind of leak seal, excepting the seal plugging kind will do any good. The plugging kind, even if available, will clog the orifice tube as well as the passages in the entire AC system including the condenser and the compressor.

It is very common for metal fatigue to occur with continued road vibration and that many miles on the car.

 

110% correct

 

Not mad at all. Matt at Toyota for putting their evaporator under the dash the way they did like it was a General Motors car or Chrysler Ford that took many hours to get to or a BMW evaporator core some Mercedes take anywhere between 12 hours to 21 hours. Miss the old days of Toyota Corolla’s and Toyota Tercel were only took 45 minutes to replace a evaporator if you were experienced maybe two hours if it was your first time.

We may not have to worry about this problem anymore on the newer vehicles with the new refrigerant R1234YF. Because the new refrigerant is slightly flammable the new mandated rules and laws to protect the passengers of a vehicle was to make the evaporator more heavy duty robust against leaks. They actually passed a law making it not legal to even use a used evaporator out of the wrecking yard into a vehicle because of safety concerns with the semi flammable refrigerant.

When I first seen Toyota not mount the expansion valve easy to get to you on the firewall I was very angry at Toyota calling them a Chevy or a Ford how dare they stick a mandatory serviceable item that is cheap and easy to get to every time you bring up a compressor you should replace it. It should be a 15 minute to 30 minute part to get to not seven hours.

But later after the year 2012 they started mounting them back outside on the firewall making it easy service. It was always a mandatory part that you replaced every time you burned up a compressor.

 

The price of R1234YF is highway robbery. I'll stick with R134A as long as possible. My retired friend still has R12 that he uses in his classic cars. They want everything original in those.

 

The main component of the cost is digging out the whole dash to get down to the thing, a job that's not super hard but just super tedious.

I once had another vehicle (non-Toyota) that I wanted to take in to a body shop for some kind of work, and I just took most of the dash and interior out, bolted the driver's seat and steering column back in, plugged back in enough of the electronics, dangling off the wire harness, for it to start and drive the couple miles to the shop. Looked pretty funny. I suppose it might not have been strictly legal, but nobody pulled me over in the four-mile round trip. Saved the shop those hours of time, and I kind of trust my reassembly better than random-other-person's anyway, so it suited me fine.

 

I did that once to one of my old cars I even removed all the windshield and drove it from San Francisco to San Carlos about 20 miles away. It was definitely not legal and I had to wear motorcycle glasses at 70 miles an hour with no windows in the car. Lol no front or rear bumper and the hood was removed. Young a long time ago driving it to my paint shop I worked at so I could do a complete paint job.

 

Lots of I’ll informed no experience comments, but why am I not surprised? Welcome to Prius chat! There is nothing wrong with running red angel ac seal, evacuate the system and charge r134a use oil input line to put in the sealant and add n hybrid oil. I’ve had evap leaks in both 2006 4Runner and 2009 Prius, both fixed with red angel and still sealed after 4+ years. Don’t listen to the imbeciles with no experience, try it you’ve got nothing to lose . I didn’t want to pull the dash so I took a shot. Follow sealer instructions exactly

 

I know nothing about Red Angel but you need to be careful about using any additives, oils or seals not made for an electronically driven compressor.

OP - even if there is a leak, it might be a slow leak. I have a leak somewhere in my system but 1 can of 134a gives me the 4 months of cold air I need each season. This is what you want to use, and ONLY this. It has the pure 134a that is safe for our compressor, and the nd11 oil needed - HYBRID REFRIGERANT NCB HYB134A | Buy Online - NAPA Auto Parts (napaonline.com)

I use that in conjunction with this hose EZ Chill A/C Recharge Reusable R-134a Gauge and Hose - Walmart.com


The important thing is to not overfill it, so fill using the instructions to the tee, and every 3-5 seconds, stop the filling process and feel the air. The moment it feels cold, you are done. Now, see how long the ac stays cold. If it turns warm after a few days, your leak is huge. If it lasts you a month or two, then this is a much more manageable and affordable way to deal with this than a $3k repair

 

A $3,000 repair implies you need to change the evaporator. What if is just some leaking valves on the high/low side connectors? That would just take an evacuation, R & R of the valves, and a refill. That's pretty cheap.

One thing is for sure if it is a leaking evaporator core, topping up probably is not the solution.

 

yossi is implying that adding sealant (or other "snake oil") to a Prius could result in the hybrid system detecting a high voltage leak in the electric compressor and shutting down the car. That would cost more to repair than the original quote for evaporator replacement.

Cars are a compromise: cost vs everything else. Designing some parts to be easily serviceable costs more. Especially in newer cars where more stuff is being jammed into less space.

I loved the older Toyotas where the glove box and part of the HVAC housing could "slide" out to get to the evaporator. But that design needed more fasteners, dash bracing, and SPACE to package the evaporator core that way in the housing.

For the past 20-30 years it's been normal that everything from the windshield down has to come out to remove the entire HVAC housing and get to the core. Sucks but that's how it is.

I have never tried sealers- esp on a hybrid. I have worked on cars that had sealer put in and on some - it did not work and the systems lost refrigerant anyway, or they did plug up the expansion valve and that had to be replaced along with the leaking part- and the system had to be flushed out.

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My ecoil was $1100 pre covid price. And the horror of seeing my car with the dash gone right to the firewall. They had it about 6 days didn't have the heart to bust there balls about it. Big labor job.

The Prius G2 has an excellent ac system should be so cold you have to back off the temp. If not I would take it to the best ac place in town and have it checked. Not the dealer.

 

I have seen the red Angel Sealant work in some vehicles over the past three decades.

and I have seen the red Angel sealant turn into a Jell-O type substance in other vehicles

where the entire system has to be either replaced or manually meticulously taken apart piece by piece and flushed out with solvent.

It works great and some cars until the first day they get in a front end accident that puncture the hole in the condenser releasing the refrigerant and introducing air and moisture into the system what causes the red angel to set and solidify.

because that’s exactly how it is designed to seal a leak when it is exposed to air and moisture through a tiny pinhole it dose a perfect job.

When the vehicles is in a repair shop the mechanic working on the vehicle when taking the air conditioning lines apart does not know that sealant is inside there and they usually always just leave the lines Open uncapped dangling in the air.

 

Speaking of air conditioners I would like to remind our viewers don't forget to maintain your refrigerator & home ac system.

You can greatly increase there life by simple maintenance.

Refrigerators are just like any ac unit it has a condenser with a little fan sucking on the condenser coil cooling it off. Just like the house condenser outside unit. Those coils get clogged up with dust pretty fast given there location on the floor in your home. Clogged condenser=poor cooling. I have 2 refrigerators. One in the garage also.

Unplug it take the back lower cover off and locate the little condenser fins and fan and get a long brush and a vacuum attachment with a wand and a brush end. Vac out the condenser fins best you can with the brush & vac.
Unclog the fins. Be gentle. It will be very clogged. I take the little blower motor out if I can and clean it and shoot some 3-1 oil in its bearing.
I then get some thin ac filter material and tape it over the condenser input vent on the outside of the metal cover. Make sure its the input vent on the condenser side not the blower output vent lol. You can tell by which side the dust is on the condenser fins. The dusty side needs the filter on its vents. This filter seems to help as successive cleans are much better. I do this once a year.
Your refrigerator will last years and years if you do this one simple task.

Also when you change the AC air filters out in your home tape up the filter edges to the frame nice and tight so its an air tight seal. Once a month.
Most filter inlet boxes are very sloppy and leave a gap around the filter. If filter not sealed airtight your wasting you time & money because as soon as the filter gets a little clogged the air will sneak around the edges of the filter. Be suspicious of this gap/seal if every time you change the filter out its not really dusty at all especially if you own a cat or dog.
This really helps and will mitigate the amount of dust getting into the main unit. You want to do all you can to stop dust hitting that main evap coil as its very difficult to clean the main unit especially if in the attic its brutal up there. And a good way to get hurt.
Be suspicious the main evap is getting clogged if you do not have a really strong air draw with filter out.

Good luck.