Air Conditioning Condenser

I've known for a few months that the air-conditioning was not working on my Esprit. I asked a local, mobile refrigeration specialist to look at the car.

The first task is to pressurise the system with 10 bar of Nitrogen and then to perform an IPR (Isolated Pressure Rise) test. This concluded that there was a large leak somewhere. The leak was so large in fact, that an audible hissing sound could be heard from the front of the car.

A suspected hole in the condenser was initially thought, so this had to be removed and inspected.

Jobs on the Esprit seem to involve a lot of labour.... the air-conditioning condenser is one such job. From start to actual access to the condenser, I estimate that this would have taken around 12 hours of work.

The problems you face are rusted nuts and bolts, as well as the amount of covers and panels you have to remove.

Sandwich

This shows the ChargeCooler radiator, the silver air-conditioning condenser and the engine radiator in the background.

The Leaky Bit

To my relief, the condensers were OK, there are two of them and they are priced at £320.00 each. The actual leak was a small hole in the low pressure pipe right next to the condenser:

Remember to change the dryer after the system has been opened:

Condenser Assembly

The condenser assembly is made up of two condensers plumbed up in parallel:

The condensers are manufactured by Harrison:

If you can find a cross-reference for these, please let me know.

ChargeCooler Radiator

The ChargeCooler radiator is a modified condenser from a fridge:

It's very fragile too. I spent a lot of time trying to straighten out the fins on the bloody thing.