AC Evaporator Core Assembly

Has the hv battery been replaced? If not, that will be another 4 digit repair when the time comes. You have to figure if can keep up with future repairs. If not, sell it for a newer one

SM-N900P ?

 

Most of the procedure of replacing the evaporator involves removing and replacing screws and clipped together parts.

You will be placing $60 plus an hour for these task that anyone with simple tools can accomplish with patience him or herself.

I know, I was 15 years old forty years, ago, when I installed my first auto air conditioner.

You don't really need to replace the condenser, if the evaporator is leaking under the dashboard.

You do, however, need to replace the desiccant dryer and the orifice tube, if you replace the evaporator.

Moisture and dire are the bane of air conditioners.

I would replace ALL of the "o" ring seals, too.

As I stated, I have worked on car air conditioner for forty years.

 

The HV battery

the HV battery can be replaced closer to 3k.

 

The Dallas area is the Auto Air Conditioning Capital of the World.

As I recall, in the 1970's and 1980's they made nearly all of the aftermarket air conditioner parts. Evercool cornered the market at that time.

If you are not comfortable with charging the air conditioner, any well equipped shop can do it for about $200 or so.

You can save a lot by purchasing the parts, yourself and installing them.

Just make sure that you installer the receiver-dryer last and keep the system sealed until you have it charged.

 

Find it hard to believe no indies out there with Prius experience. We got Ice Cold Air here and they know all about it.

Condenser replacement is not a bad idea if the outside looks really corroded and has fod evidence.
Btw there is a tsb for evap coil replacement with a new anti microbial unit. Search around on here for the part number. Make sure they use that one.

Evap coils fail if there never maintained and get overgrown with mold and corrosion sets in. Evap coil maintenance should be a routine thing with modern cars. Dealers sells the kit with special tube that attaches to the drip hose and foamy cleaner is shot back up the tube and fills the e box and cleans it. Its $25. but another poster found something just like it on Amazon for $15. Maybe he'll chime in sorry.

 

"So, I purchased a 2006 Prius about a year ago with 198,000 miles on it for $6,000...I just had the water pump replaced and am wondering if I should move forward with the AC repair or cut my losses and ditch the car?"
At 198K miles your Prius is way past design end of life. It is reasonable to expect that various critical parts will fail as you continue to log miles, such as the inverter, transaxle, traction battery, MFD, etc. If you have to pay your local Toyota dealer to install new parts, you'll quickly get to the point where you are putting way more money in the car than its market value. Hence you should fix the AC now, and then sell the car (because who in Texas is going to be silly enough to buy a car without working AC, without demanding a big price discount for the risk associated with the AC repair?)

However if you can DIY most repairs as has been suggested with the AC, then you have a chance to keep the car operational without paying four-digit amounts every time a major issue arises. Good luck with your decision.

 

The compressor might be loud and NOT WORKING, because there is a switch that prevents it from coming on, when the refrigerant is low.

Most likely, repairing the leaking evaporator, replacing the orifice tube and the receiver dryer, and charging the system will fix it for quite a while.

In my case, I have tools for doing everything, and have for 40 years. R-134A and some oil is all I need, should I find the need to replace any other components.

Contrary to popular belief, air conditioner in cars are very reliable. I had not services air conditioner is my own cars for nearly 35 years.

It's possible that the evaporator might NOT be leaking. "O" rings are the first culprit. They are very cheap to replace.

 

a 4 digit repair means it's going to be in the thousands. $3000=4digits

 

Can be interrupted different ways, such as just 1,000 dollars, which is not as scary,
When someone is looking at repairs.
JC, you seem to have a way of putting the fear in people when it comes to the what ifs, when it comes to the repair of a Prius sometime.
Maybe someone wanted to approach the battery as replacing some of the segments, let's just say for 1k.
btw, I get the four digit repair, I just think if someone was looking at a more detail approach to their budget , they may want to know something more precise, if someone is trying to help them out. Replacing a transaxle/inverter say used might be harder to pinpoint. Then I would say 1 k to 4k, that way the person has a high and low figure to look at.

 

Just looking isn't going to cut it to determine that the OP needs an evaporator for his air conditioner.

Anyone having any knowledge about air conditioner repair knows that a set of gauges needs to be connected to the unit and, if the charge is low, a reasonable charge of Freon 134A has to be put into the system, before any REAL diagnosis can be made.

The OP needs to find out how the technician made his determination of a defective evaporator. Except for the in and out connections, the evaporator coil is buried inside the housing under the dashboard.

 

It is true that I caution people in buying higher mileage prius cars due to expensive repairs of failed systems. That is also the reason kbb values these cars lower with high mileage, it's associated with higher pending repairs when the systems fail. I don't want to say to someone a car with 150k miles is a good purchase because a prius has a good reliability record, at that mileage, it's already at or close to the designed end of life, any of the expensive systems can fail.

In terms of thebattery, a 4 digit repair is just a number to consider, $1k for diy, $3k for dealer. Anyway you do it, it's 4 digits unless you bandaid the repair with a replacement cell.

SM-N900P ?

 

I must be an exception and a risk taker to have bought my Prius a month ago with 144k.
It really depends on the person buying a older car. This was not my first time buying any kind of older car. People here on PC gave me good advice, and the pre inspection helped me decide.
I think it good in some ways to give people the real high end of all possible repairs. But at least give them some hopefully more less expensive ways out.
Surely no one wants to buy a lemon. Hopefully as long as there is people like me on here,that will give them other options, then they can decide. Spoken from someone who is really on a budget .

 

I give even more caution to those that are on a serious budget.

In your case, you made an informed purchase and knew the risks. You did very well

SM-N900P ?

 

"It really depends on the person buying a older car."
This is quite true. If you can DIY most likely repairs then a Prius with a high odometer reading is not an unreasonable purchase, as long as it is running correctly at the time of purchase.
If the car has, for example, ECU communications issues, that can be very painful and costly to figure out. I would avoid buying such a car. Who knows if it had been subject to flood damage.

The OP had to pay to have a coolant pump replaced which is a simple activity, so it seems to me that he does not easily fit the profile of a DIYer. Therefore a Prius that has logged close to 200K miles is a bad purchase for him.

 

Patrick, I agree with you about the OP having a lot of miles, if it is an expensive repair for ac unit part, I would not keep sinking money into it.
I would not hesitate to buy a older car like mine again if it checked out clean.
I figured if I drive it 6 years, my purchase cost would be 1,000 a year.
Wonder how many gen 2 are still doing great without extensive repairs with mileage up around 300 k ?

 

I would get a 2nd opinion. I've seen AC compressor, condenser, and electronics fail but never the evaporator. Make sure whoever recharges the system has equipment to inject the appropriate ND11 oil. If you use "normal" AC oil your electric compressor will fry in a few months. We see 300k Gen2's all the time, usually only Hybrid batteries fail and the occasional transaxle.

 

Great Call...

Also like the fact that you see 300k Gen2's all the time....

 

"We see 300k Gen2's all the time"

What portion of those are taxicabs vs. privately owned vehicles?

 

So Paul, I would like to know too, WHAT PORTIONS OF THOSE ARE TAXICABS VS PRIVATE OWNED CARS?
( Concerning 300k Prius's you see all the time )