[jnmann]

Ok so today is July 16, and my air conditioning is fixed!

So basically, the compressor change was the biggest PITA of my life. I had a few buddies over to help me pull the compressor, which was something that helped me a lot.

I took the car to the shop to have them evacuate the system, which took maybe 20 or so minutes. I drove the car back and jacked the right side of the car up, and set it on a jack stand. I took the belly pan off (the front plastic piece), and had the piece that covers the radiator taken off too. First thing that I realized when I crawled under the car is the thermostat is placed right under the compressor. So I was very worried it would have to be taken out to increase clearance to remove the compressor. Also, another thing I was not prepared for was the star bolts that are all around the underside of the car. So I had to make many trips to the auto parts store to get the correct sockets to complete the job. The belt tensioner is a T55, and it's tricky to get to. I pulled the belt off by getting the T55 set in the tensioner and turning it clockwise, which lets off tension to the belt. Next, I removed the high and low pressure lines leading into the compressor, which was around a 6mm hex head. The hex bolts on my compressor were starting to get stripped, so I ended up using a torx head to get some extra grip on the bolts (I believe a T45 or so). I made sure that I wadded up a piece of paper towel and plugged the high and low lines so no debris can get in and clog the system. Once the lines were disconnected, I was ready to pull the star bolts off and remove the compressor. There are 3 bolts, one on the top of the compressor towards the front, one mounted to the back of the compressor, and one on the bottom of the compressor. These bolts require a lot of patience, especially because the thermostat was still installed (since I didn't want to open the cooling system and bleed it later). Eventually all 3 bolts were removed, and slowly I snaked the compressor out. It takes a little bit of elbow grease, and since the thermostat was loosened a little, it gave just enough clearance to get the compressor out. After I had the compressor removed, I compared it to the new compressor (mounting bolt locations, high and low pressure line locations, and overall length so the belt lines up). Next, I had a small measuring cup that I used to drain the compressor oil out. This is where there is a lot of controversy. I spoke with a technician at the shop after my system was evacuated, and he told me that it is best practice to drain the oil out and add another 10 grams or so to the new compressor. He said usually 4 oz total or so, since there will be oil throughout the rest of the system. So when I drained the compressor, about 0.7 oz came out, which surprised the hell out of me. So I decided to add about 4 oz of oil to the new compressor (after ensuring that it was empty). After adding the oil to the new compressor, I put the plugs back into it so it didn't leak when I was installing it into the car. Installing the new compressor was a little easier, and its the reverse of pulling it out. I didn't have a specific torque value, just the ol' fashioned arm torque. Then I installed the high and low pressure lines (make sure you take out the paper towel plugs). Next was the receiver drier. This is pretty self explanatory, just a few mounting bolts, high and low pressure lines, etc. Paper towel plugs as before, and make sure the new receiver drier comes plugged to ensure it doesn't retain any outside moisture for as long as possible. Oh, I forgot to mention before, I replaced all o-rings I came into contact with. Obviously make sure you get some compressor oil on the o-rings so they don't get squished and ripped/cut when installing the lines into the compressor and receiver drier. The receiver drier was a bit of a pain to line up, since its a cylinder and it only can line up one way with the high and low pressure lines. That took me much longer than I anticipated. Once the lines were installed into the receiver drier and o-rings were replaced, I was ready to finish the job up by reinstalling the mounting bolts to the thermostat and putting the belt back on. The tensioner ended up stripping right when I had the belt just about lined up, so the last little bit of lining up was done by hand, which was very hard. Eventually the belt was lined up and the lower belly pan was reinstalled. I took it back up to the shop so they can pull a vacuum on the system and recharge it with refrigerant. Since the shop was busy (Saturday afternoon), it took them a few hours to do everything. They called me to the shop to pick the car up and everything seems to work! So after a long week of preparation and research, I couldn't be happier that this story has a happy ending. If anyone has any questions or needs something clarified, let me know. Also, when the compressor was installed and the lines and everything were tight, I rotated the clutch on the compressor to get the oil moving around through the system. I rotated in 10-15 times.

Thanks for reading!