Question about troubleshooting clogged condensor.

[tbirdtbird]

all I can say is YIKES!!!!!
good luck owning that car

[ThisOldBob]

The worst part about this car (Mazda6) is most of that work needed to change the condensor - about 75% of it has to be done to change a headlight. Seriously you have to remove the bumper cover and several support pieces and then pull the headlights to change the bulbs. I did that a couple of years ago and replaced all bulbs at that time to avoid doing it again.

I'm hoping what's clogged it is the desiccant bag has ruptured it's just clogged the screen, but I have no idea. Luckily I haven't had to fix a system with internal damage yet.

Thank you guys for all the help.

Also - hopefully a funny story - I came here many years ago for help, can't remember if I was converting my step daughter's 85 Monte Carlo SS from r12 to r134a or if it was when I was working on a 95 Nissan Maxima with variable compressor and TXV which gave me fits. Anyway it was my first A/C repair. Chick gave me instructions on how to evac, flush and charge. Here it is all these years later and I had to re-register because that old board is gone, and I'm reading a thread and tbirdtbird is giving another person the same knowledge. Made me laugh thinking how many times has that been repeated on these boards over the years. And the funny part is I've been working from home for the last 15 months and we are talking about going back into the office part time starting in Sept. In order to keep distance they have decided to make all the desks "community" desks meaning you will sit where ever is open. In prep of this we had to go clean out our personal items from our workspace and when cleaning out my desk I found those instructions from Chick that I had printed out and put in my desk probably 17+ years ago.

[ThisOldBob]

So I got down to the condenser, but couldn't get it removed from the radiator because the bolts and nuts are frozen and I didn't want to crack the plastic on the radiator. I'm trying to just get the cap off of the accumulator so I can clean the screen and replace the desiccant bag but can't get the cap off. I took off the circlip but can't find a way to remove the cap, tried pulling with pliers bu can't get a hold. Is there a special tool to pull them out?

[DetroitAC]

Special tool is a pair of pliers, yeah not so special I guess. Needle nose vise grips??

Rock it a bit as you put some downward force on the pliers, it's held at this point by the o-ring and whatever dirt is up there

[Cusser]

Get new drier !