2003 MB E320 W210 R/D missing

[erubin]

and here is a photo of the car so you can see how pristine it looks. Not a single tear in the interior either.

[tbirdtbird]

I'm not John but I have been following this thread. To be clear you never use a solvent to flush a comp. You flush it only with the oil that is supposed to be there, as he described.
Other components are better to be removed to be flushed, but in any case disconnect the fittings so that each piece can be flushed separately.
It is imperative to dry out the flush thoroughly, using shop air that has been run thru a drier such as might be used in a paint booth or get a tank of oxygen free nitrogen plus regulator from a welding supply shop. Shop air directly from an air compressor is heavily laden with moisture and oil residue, which will make things worse for you.

The term 'approved flush' comes up often. HECAT makes a really nice power flusher called the Pulsator. Could be a bit pricey for the DIY group.
We are a small shop and use automotive so-called 'pre-cleaner' which is actually naptha rigged to a flush gun. Naptha leaves absolutely no residue, because any residue on an automotive panel that is to be spray painted will weaken the bond of the paint to the panel. John may want to comment on this. I would not use anything oily such as mineral spirits. It never hurts to remind that condensers cannot be flushed.

I am sure John will be back at some point soon.

[erubin]

cut wires.jpg (106.75 KiB) Viewed 3085 times

Well I found the schemaic for the pressure switch and upon closer inspection I found the 3 cut wires. Now need to get or make a connector and determine which wire goes to which terminal.

[erubin]

thank you for jumping in tbird. Understood about the compressor and will just blow out the condensor with N2 as I have a tank at my restaurant with a regulator. I don't look forward to flushing the evap so I'll just do the N2 purge. I do own a flush gun so that's nbot out of the question but what a mess I'd be getting into not to mention what am I flushing and where to get the snake oil flush.

[tbirdtbird]

Car does look pristine! You have weird damage there. If we have to flush an evap, we have to rig up some hose from the bulk reels at ace hardware to keep it from drowning the interior. Catch it in a bucket or something to check for any debris.

Parts of this thread confuse me. It is not clear to me whether the comp and condenser s/b changed out. Brad (Bohica) did not think much of re-using the comp. From what I have read, were it my car I would change both. Oh, and don't forget to flush the hoses also (disconnected), and check the OT or TXV for debris

I am not sure if there is any point to running nitrogen thru the condenser, you have no way to know whether it worked its way thru all the passages. We try to give conservative advice here so that you do not have to do it over.

[erubin]

Bohica described the compressor as direct drive, always spinning and hence should be replaced because the system is open and the compressor will gulp in air.

But...

Turns out that this E320 uses a clutched AC. The compressor is not spinning continuously.

May want to reassess categoric rejection of the compressor unless we pivot..and say, change everything just to be sure. I don't mind taking a shot at making it work for 5 years without dropping $1k on more parts.

So one strategy is to drain out and reoil the compressor, then blow out the evap (and why not the condenser too) with N2. The other extreme is to replace everything replaceable and flush out just the evap and hoses, no merci beaucoup.

[tbirdtbird]

Its a tough call.
I have had 2 cars here where I tried hard to salvage parts of the system only to be bitten in the butt. Ended up replacing the entire system except evap in both. From my point of view, I won't ever let that happen again, a big waste of time and $. If there is any doubt, at least for me, I will from now on change everything.

To make matters worse, I've had new condensers full of metal chad punchouts of aluminum, a comp that had a bent pulley even tho the box externally showed no sign of damage, new TXVs that were NG only to find out that the supplier had a bad batch of them, and other gotchas. This is why I am only getting my stuff from Tim now.

[JohnHere]

"Thank you John. Here are photos of the compressor. You can see that the wire goes to the middle but when I look up the Denso number it says clutch."

The first picture shows a Denso clutch, all right. One photo answers multiple questions. I can't help with the wiring, though. Hopefully, the schematic will lead to your figuring it out.

I'm not John but I have been following this thread. To be clear you never use a solvent to flush a comp. You flush it only with the oil that is supposed to be there, as he described.

To the OP, right—don't use any kind of solvent in the compressor. You'll never get it all out, and subsequently, it will contaminate the new oil, leading to another system malfunction. Use only the proper oil for your system to flush the compressor.

The term 'approved flush' comes up often. HECAT makes a really nice power flusher called the Pulsator. Could be a bit pricey for the DIY group.
We are a small shop and use automotive so-called 'pre-cleaner' which is actually naptha rigged to a flush gun. Naptha leaves absolutely no residue, because any residue on an automotive panel that is to be spray painted will weaken the bond of the paint to the panel. John may want to comment on this. I would not use anything oily such as mineral spirits. It never hurts to remind that condensers cannot be flushed.

For the DIY enthusiast, Tim at ACKITS.com stocks a flushing tool, Part Number 43-4054, which is probably all you'll need. In the same section, you'll find specialized flushing solvents from HECAT and others that will do the job effectively. Naphtha will also work and is comparable in price to the specialty A/C solvents, although I haven't tried it myself.

It's definitely good advice to replace the condenser while you're working on the system. In addition to "condensing," the condenser acts as a filter for the entire system. As tbirdtbird alluded, the original one in this car is likely a parallel-flow type, which can't be flushed.

You wrote "I suggest removing and flushing the compressor, but don't use any kind of solvent for that purpose. Use PAG-46". How do I flush with PAG-46. That is the oil not the flush. Maybe you are suggesting not to use a flushing agent in the compressor but rather fill and drain with Pag-46 oil a few times to allow it to carry out some of the residual stuff.

Exactly right, as explained earlier.

"Flushing-out the other components with an approved solvent will take care of removing the old, contaminated oil." Can I skip that for the evap and the condenser? Assuming I see no corrosion in any of the pipes? It's hard to flush out completly the solvent when the condenser and evap are in the car. I really dont look forward to removing them from the car.

I recommend replacing the condenser with a new one for the reasons already given. That leaves the original evaporator, which can be flushed in situ using the above-mentioned tool as long as you can access the inlet and outlet tubes and remove the TXV. Then, dry out the evaporator thoroughly using your nitrogen setup. Be sure the N2 cylinder has a regulator on it, though, because the evaporator won't be able to withstand the extremely high pressure directly from the N2 cylinder.

Here is a view from beneath the car with missing RD. You can see some damaged metal with a few sloppy welds. Amazingly its the only sign of damage. The radiator support is perfect and factory original and the fender looks original with no paint overspray anywhere to be found. Its as though the damage only destroyed the RD and the car frame holding it.

Just guessing, but the damage could have been caused by the previous owner running over something on the road and kicking up in that one area, like a boulder, log, or even some kind of large metal part that fell off a truck or car. I suggest getting a four-wheel alignment done as well.

The second photo is taken from above. The electrical connector for the RD mounted temperature switch is intact but the RD mounted Blade type; 3-prong electrical connector is missing. I do se two sets of wires dangling in there, one is a green and a brown wire and the other severed wire pair is red/white and blue/brown stripped. Maybe I need to keep looking for the pressure switch 3-wire if it's not these?

Could be. Tracing them on the wiring schematic should lead you to the correct connection points.

[bohica2xo]

"Bohica described the compressor as direct drive, always spinning and hence should be replaced because the system is open and the compressor will gulp in air.

But...

Turns out that this E320 uses a clutched AC. The compressor is not spinning continuously."

Had YOU posted the correct model year, I might have been able to provide more accurate information. BUT...