Air Conditioning System Removal

Why

The STS class autocross rules allow you to remove the air conditioning system, so I definately wanted to take advantage of that to lighten the front of the car.

AC Removal Process

It isn't essential to take off the front bumper to remove the air conditioning system, but it makes things a lot easier and gives you more room to work. Looking back on the process, I'm glad I did it. It's definately worth the extra time. I made a seperate page that shows how to remove the front bumper so that this A/C writeup would not get too long.

  1. Remove the front bumper.
  2. Disconnect and remove the battery from the battery tray. It will make removing the refrigerant canister much easier later in the process.
    Battery removed
  3. Get under the car and cut the A/C accessory belt.
    A/C Accessory Belt
  4. Prepare to remove the air intake by disconnecting the mass airflow sensor.
    Mass Airflow Sensor
  5. Loosen the four clips that hold the air box closed.
    Air box clips
  6. Remove the hose going into the air box.
    Air box hose
  7. Remove the bolts that connect the intake to the fan shroud and radiator support.
    Bolts that connect the intake to the fan shroud and radiator support
  8. Remove the two vacuum lines connected to the intake and the hose from the valve cover to the intake (I disconnected it from the valve cover side, not the intake side).
    Two vacuum lines connected to intake and hose from intake to valve cover
  9. Disconnect the hose under the intake that leads to the resonator (located on the right side of the radiator).
    Hose to the intake resonator (on the right side of the radiator)
  10. Disconnect the intake from the throttle body, and remove it from the engine bay.
    Intake removed
  11. Cover the throttle body with something to keep out debris.
  12. Take out the bottom part of the air box (remove the bolt and pull the box toward the right side of the car to remove it from the notches it is attached to). This will give you more room to work.
    Bottom part of air box removed
  13. Unbolt the two A/C lines attached to the top of the compressor. Do this slowly, since the lines may be under pressure. My system had nothing in it, so there was no drama here.
    A/C lines going into the top of the compressor
  14. Unplug the electrical connector to the compressor. Remove the four bolts holding the compressor to its bracket, and extract it from underneath the car. I forgot to unplug the connector before unbolting the compressor and was left holding the compressor with one are and trying to unplug the connector with the other. In the end, I decided that cutting the wire would be better then losing an arm. Damn that thing is heavy.
    Compressor removed
  15. Remove the four bolts holding the compressor bracket to the engine block (easiest from underneath the car), and take out the bracket.
    Compressor bracket
    Compressor bracket removed
  16. Use vice grips (or really large wrenches) to disconnect the A/C lines where they go into the firewall on the right side of the car. A/C lines going into the evaporator through the firewall - Picture 1
    A/C lines going into the evaporator through the firewall - Picture 2
  17. Remove the A/C lines from the refrigerant canister, and take out the line going from the firewall to the canister.
    A/C refrigerant canister
  18. Removing the A/C line that's squeezed between the engine and firewall is pretty tricky. First, remove the bolt toward the left side of the firewall that holds the line to the firewall. Then disconnect the part of the line behind the engine from the piece that goes to the compressor. Remove the piece that goes to the compressor. Finally, wiggle out the line behind the firewall from the right side of the car. The picture shows the removed hose.
    A/C line removed from between the engine and firewall
  19. Now it's time to remove the condenser. Since the condenser is in front of the radiator, the radiator and everything behind it must be removed. Remove the four nuts that attach the fan/fan clutch assembly to the water pump, and remove the fan. (Mine was already out because I was replacing the fan clutch at the same time.) Take off the line that runs to the charcoal canister over the radiator shroud. You might also want to loosen the charcoal canister clamp to make it easier to move things around.
    Remove the highlighted charcoal canister line to be able to lift out the fan shroud
  20. Remove the air relief plug (near the intake), radiator drain plug, and engine block drain plug to empty the engine of coolant. Replace these when the coolant has been drained. Disconnect the upper and lower radiator hoses.
  21. Remove the fan shroud. Take your time, and make sure that you have popped off all of the clips that hold the shroud in place.
    One of the clips that hold the fan shroud in place
  22. Take out the electric fan, which is held in place by two bolts at the top and pegs at the bottom.
    A/C electric fan
    A/C electric fan removed
  23. Unbolt the two brackets that hold the radiator to the frame.
    Right radiator bracket
    Left radiator bracket
  24. Be shocked by the amount of garbage between your condenser and radiator. Yep, there was a hostess cakes wrapper (not mine) that was stuck to the front of the radiator.
    Garbage between the radiator and condenser
    Hostess wrapper found between radiator and condenser
  25. Remove the radiator from the car.
  26. Disconnect the two A/C lines going into the condenser.
    One of the A/C lines going into the condenser
    The other A/C line going into the condenser
  27. Remove the two bolts that attach the condenser to the frame.
    Right side bolt that attaches the condenser to the frame
  28. Remove the bracket that holds the A/C line in front of the condenser to the frame.
    Condenser A/C line bracket
  29. Remove the condenser.
  30. Unplug the electrical connector to the refrigerant canister, and remove the two bolts that hold the cansiter in place.
  31. Take out the canister and the final A/C line that it is attached to.
  32. Re-install the radiator, fan shroud, fan, and intake in the reverse order as above.
  33. Take this opportunity to flush the engine coolant (follow directions in the factory service manual).
  34. Take pretty pictures and sell parts.
    A/C system parts

Weight Reduction

I used a bathroom scale to get a rough idea of how much weight I removed from the car. The condenser and electric fan together weighed 18 lbs. The compressor, canister, and lines together weighed 35 lbs. That's about 53 lbs. in weight loss. The front end of the car even looks higher. I'll get a little more weight loss once I remove the evaporator from under the dash. That will come later.

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