After I’ve replaced the condenser, the dryer, and all hoses in the engine bay, the refrigerant leakage still occurs. My mechanic and I, without choice had our eyes staring at the dashboard. Likely, something happened beneath. We decided to give it one more shot to test the system with the refrigerant leak detector. No leakage found in the engine bay. It is an unfortunate finding, albeit it is kind of expected as the condenser, air con hoses and the dryer are all brand new. I suspected that it was the evaporator leaking. I had 2 choices to fix it
- Pass it to an specialist
- DIY
I decided to do it myself for a few reasons
- no specialist is willing to source the evaporator for me
- I had previous unpleasant experience with a specialist replacing the evaporator for a another car before. While the leakage was fixed, the dashboard obviously was broken during the process and a lot of squeak happened from the dashboard since then
I had no previous experience to disassemble the dashboard, it seems to be a challenging DIY task. With the real experience, I would said it is not easy for sure, but not impossible, all you need is a lot of patience, time and some thinking. And before I started, I made sure I had all the components ready that include:
- Evaporator
- Expansion valve
- O rings
- 2x Passenger air bag cover securing pin (It’s almost for sure to break them when removing the dashboard)
Removing the dashboard
As I could not find a step-by-step guide of doing so, I did it by ear with common sense. Everything are attached together either by screws, nuts or clips, aren’t they? From the hindsight, I did follow the following steps of removing the components
- all components on the centre console and the console itself
- all instruments on the dashboard
- Glove box and cover under the steer column
- Steering wheel
- All screws I could find
The most tricky part is to detach the dashboard from the central bridge. It took me a while to figure out that they are attached together with a pair of buckles and 4 screws. To unlock the buckle, I had to lift the bridge, pushed it toward the engine bay.
I’d say I have proven the job is DIYable. I did it by myself in a very tiny parking lot. And all tools I used are simple hand tools.
Tips of doing it
- Think of other tasks you can/should do with the dashboard out
- Think of facilitating the reassemble of it when dismantle the dashboard
- Prepare a few of jars to collect all the screws, nuts, washers by sections
- Take pictures for major steps, such as removing the steering wheels
- Remove the trims of A pillars too
- Patience as said. When components do not come out as expected. Give yourself a break, don’t force it. Scrutinise the component surrounding until you find the hidden screw or the cause
Part 2 – Replacing Alfa 156 evaporator
Where the saga began – Air refrigerant leakage
Sept 2019
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