Whats involved in installing air con.

[speed_freak]

Pretty much the title states it all. I got a new job and im doing a lot of driving and need air con. whats involved in installing it? what type of costs am i looking at.

just trying to weigh up whether itl be cheaper to just sell the car and buy another with air con already installed.

thanks

[Chris E]

Rough guess would be $2k + easily

[speed_freak]

is that saying that i buy the parts my self. im sure i could get the pumps and such for about $500 from a wreck

[Chris E]

Oh that was a guess at all new parts.

If you got all the system second hand then just got a new drier/condenser and got it regassed and approved you could do it a lot cheaper.

But I'd ask a professional or something, I don't know to much about it there might be more to it

[speed_freak]

anyone else have an idea of what prices im looking at for the install, saying im getting all the parts from a wrecked VS with air con?

[DannyboyDS]

well there are allot of parts plus the electrics, is there anything special about your car? i'd just sell it and get a car with air con, it will be allot of hassle and you would be lucky to pull all of the parts out (Thats every little bit) from a car in one day.

[speed_freak]

nah theres not anything special about it besides the fact i just installed the exhaust system and i was kinda happy cause it was a factory manual. might have to have a think about this one

[python_hunter1]

yeah it is defintly not worth it. like has been said, there is so many parts to add to get the system working properly. i mean it can be done and has been before, but would be sooooo much easier to upgrade to a car fitted with a/c. how hand are you with the spanners?

[hako]

The worst bit is installing the evaporator - to do this you need to remove the complete dash - an 8 hour job for a mechanic. Most if not all the wiring will be there already. Second hand bits may be cheaper but you only have to get a few grains of sand in the lines when pulling it from a wreck and either the compressor seizes or the TX valve blocks resulting in another $500 minimum to fix.
Life is too short to be tearing your hair out (which you will)....buy another VS with air already installed.

[DannyboyDS]

The worst bit is installing the evaporator - to do this you need to remove the complete dash - an 8 hour job for a mechanic. Most if not all the wiring will be there already. Second hand bits may be cheaper but you only have to get a few grains of sand in the lines when pulling it from a wreck and either the compressor seizes or the TX valve blocks resulting in another $500 minimum to fix.
Life is too short to be tearing your hair out (which you will)....buy another VS with air already installed.

Yeah on Nova a few weeks back one of the hosts was pretending to be an air con expert, while speaking to one, it was some I can fake anything gimmik, anyway she asked him how long does it take you to pull the evaporator out of a VR commodore?

He was like oh you know 20 minutes, she replied with it's normally an 8 hour job for our experienced staff.

Oh yeah, it would be easier to take the manual stuff out of your commodore and into the new one to be honest, plus you can do all the work yourself.

[speed_freak]

looks like i may have to sell

[The1]

Im not an expert but i have looked in this for my wifes barina which has no aircon.

You can get under dash units like the one below which already have a tx valve and evaporator in them, then all you need is compressor and condenser from another car and then get a aircon place to fit the hoses and drier etc. If you do most of the work yourself you can probably get away with $1000 perhaps

Under dash COOL ONLY with vented fascia: Speedy Air Spares

[speed_freak]

i could see how that may work on a smaller car like a barina but i think it would struggle to cool down the volume that a VS has. maybe ill just kick my windscreen out and wear a helmet

[ryno_vrx]

or cut the roof off and turn it into a convertible