Air conditioning condensers. Help!

I've had my 996.2 for around a year and finally found time to try get the air conditioning working. The recent heat wave made me realise that air conditioning is really nice to have. At my last service, my trusted indie told me that the condensers were way past their best. I bought a kit (oe match) from design 911 and only found time to fit these this weekend. You tube was my friend and I followed Jay Read on you tube to remove the bumper . Front bumper removal was easy enough. Condensers were pretty bad. Splitting these exposed masses of leaves and detritus. Condenser on drivers side came off easily. No gas came out at all. The passenger side is a different story. I managed to round the Allen key bolt on one of the air con pipes. Where can I buy a new bolt? And any advice to split this?? I thought i would progress the drivers side. However the oe match stuff from design 911 does fit!! Totally disappointed with the oe match stuff and without the car this week now as I am stuck.

Can you get some mole /vice grips on the allen head bolt and try to undo it, i'd just chop the head off it with the angle grinder with a cutting disc on.

Adding some good news. The radiator grill protective mesh also bought from design911 fit quite well and looks great.

Thanks @Hooner - Tried mole grips today. The bolts have been coated in Loctite and they are super tight. Mole grips just slipped off. I plan to try the cutting disc tomorrow, but it will be a delicate job with the pipe in place.

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You're not gripping it tight enough then. Mole grips are probably strong enough to tear the bolt head clean off if you grip it right.

Careful localised heat should sort the loctite out, if it's really bad then weld a bit of metal onto it perpendicular to the bolt so you've got leverage and it'll turn out, or snap off - if it snaps off then you'll need to drill it and use extractors like Easy-Out.

Made me think of this... Good luck!

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If it snaps off it's a result as the part its stuck in (condenser) is going in the bin.

It amazes me how there aren't way more 9XX engines that have totally overheated , imagine if you took that car to a track with all that crap covering them as well as the condensers. Not having a dig at the OP , you see so many like that.

I took it to the nurburgring like that!

I ended up having to cut the old condenser off my old Audi A2, much like you did. In the end I used an adjustable wrench to hold the left-over part of the condenser in place and a big breaker bar on the hex bolt. The bolt eventually came loose but snapped, but at the same time I was able to separate the parts. Just mind the sealing surfaces so don't pry between the connector and the condenser!

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Wonder if it's played a part in cars that have scored?

Hopefully the bolt is the easy bit, as Alex said the old one is going in the bin….. so snapping it or just cutting it out is easy bit. A new bolt from your local freindly over the the counter OPC parts supplier, who will also give you the rubber grommets and some Pag oil in a tiny baggy to lube up said grommets and the drier in and out, The worrying but ? Does that condenser actually fit ? If not don’t mess about send them back, buy Behr Hella ones from any of the on line parts places they fit perfect as are OE supplier, or were when these cars were new. Good luck with the snapped bolt.

I will just say having started buying bits again for my 997.1 like bonnet struts I ordered some bits over the phone whilst I was on sorting my wheels out and was quite surprised by their attitude, I wanted the struts and asked if they came in pairs, they didn’t…. I wanted something else can’t remember now but that didn’t come paired, windscreen wipers I thought paired nope singular ? I was told I’ve just told you we do not sell sell pairs of anything everything is single, I left it at that, as I wanted Goddridge brake hoses X4,and a pair of brake pads. I was scratching my head at this point and sat wondering what else I couldn’t buy in pairs ?

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I was thinking the same. How long for a brand new car to get that much build up ? 3yrs if you live in a leafy suburb or the countryside. No other car that I know of has the same issue to the extent at least.

You are replacing the A/C drier as well aren't you? I tried the mesh from D911 for my 996, it was very expensive and didn't fit well so I took it back and saved a lot of money by buying ally mesh and stainless screws on Ebay. I fitted condensers from a firm in Liverpool IIRC, they fitted perfectly and weren't expensive.

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I was just going to suggest replacing the drier too. keeps the whole AC system in much better condition and the one on the car now will be saturated if it's been left without pressure. Also super easy to change just before the regas for optimal AC performance. I changed my condensors and drier a few years ago now and the AC is still icy cold, very nice!

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Every little bit contributes. Mr AI Googlebot says:

Could be why they never score in Dubia........there's no trees

Is it possible to separate the condensers / radiators (for cleaning) without needing to disconnect refrigerant / water lines?

yes, its easy, you just remove 1 bolt, then slide away.

Good news, thanks. That’s another displacement activity to add to the list

There are 2 versions of the Mahle/Behr/Hella condensers. Standard, which are the cheap ones and an aftermarket fitment (as per the photos above) and Premium which are 3 times the price and are the Porsche spec parts

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I got Mahle ones from Autodoc which seemed to fit fine

I called Design911 this morning sent pictures and they admitted they had some issues with suppliers when I bought these last year. The new supplier is better, but I didn't risk it and upgraded to mahle parts. They will be here later in the week. I am replacing the drier too. As for the pag oil, I bought liqi moly stuff. Ai suggests pouring 20ml into each condenser prior to fitting.

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Same but from design911

I'm assuming the dryers are desiccant, that's the only way I suppose on something so small, and then the filters will just be basic stuff, so on anything a few years old they're probably past their best and certainly on something that's been in use for a decade or more will be on it's way out if it hasn't already, another guess but I assume the desiccant won't have a regen function.

Update - New Mahle condensors arrived. I still need to cut the head off the hex bolt and have a dremmel style tool to do this now. I also will try to hammer in a T30 Hex bit, but fear that over exerting the aluminium around this area may break something. Design 911 also confirmed I can use the black o rings that came with the OE match kit. Will push on tonight or tomorrow

And its done! Condensers replaced. The mangled hex head bolt came off with a bolt grip faster remover made by Irwin and a huge vice. These bolts are supposed to be tightened to 20nm but as its steel into aluminim it corrodes and gets super stuck. Mahle condensers lined up nicely and all went back easily. I have a drier and will change this over before getting the system pressure tested and regassed. What is this thing in the drivers side in front of the wheel arch please? The fitting clipping it onto the metal was corroded so i cable tied it instead. Will that be OK? It seems to have two electrical cables going into it. A temperature sensor perhaps? Am I missing some undertrays.

It'a a fan resister

Thanks @Hooner . I will remove tomorrow and rust treat that area and the zip tie back up.

Once aircon is sorted you need to check both those resistors work by seeing if the rad fans come on when you switch the aircon on.

Thanks @Alex - I will test this as soon as everything is back together. I also have a new drier, but read that this must only be replaced when you are ready to fill the system. I also saw that zip tying the fan resisitors will lead to a nice glob of melted plastic. New bracket ordered at £20 - gulp!!

Will be a gulp if the resistors are kaput.

@Alex or anyone else. Before I put the very expensive resistor bracket and resistor back on, how can i test these are working? Is it a simple case of turn air con on and low temp fan should come on? Following this video:

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Sounds about right to me....that's how i periodically check mine are working as they should.

They should common on when aircon is activated yes, but I'm not 100% sure whether the pressure sensor needs to be reading the correct pressure 1st.

Thanks! The process sounds like, i put it all back together with the current resistors and then take the car to be pressure tested and if ok, filled with gas. If the fans do not work after that, replace the resisitors. It will be winter by the time i get the air con working!

I've removed my air con system completely apart from the pipe work and if you select aircon on the dash it still activates the fans , it's really handy when you're sat in traffic as you can put the fans on manually to keep the coolant temp from rising until you get going again. Engine revs pick up to about 900rpm as well to help with the compressor (which I haven't got anymore)

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You can make a little jumper cable 6" long with a standard spade connector on each end. Then in the drivers footwell above the fuses you have a row of relays, if you remove them 1 by 1 and use your jumper cable to bridge the top and bottom vertical sockets, you can activate Left High, Right High, Left Low and Left High fans manually one at a time, All relays are the same, but there are 5 in the row and the test only uses 4 the corresponds to the fans, can't recall which exact relays or order but I did it and found my left low fan speed was goosed. I replaced both resistors with the Arcol fix... Porsche wanted nearly £400 for 2 ceramic resistors!! The Arcol fix was spot on for about £20 (I bought the resistors from a chap on here). Bolted mine to the fan carrier with thermal paste and used high gauge wire, solder and a couple of layers of adhestive heat shrink.

Thank you @WilmslowSi - I did some reading using the link you supplied. Relay 19 - Radiator Fan 1 - Stage 1 (Low speed, left/nearside fan) Relay 20 - Stage 2 (High speed, left/nearside fan) Relay 21 - Radiator Fan 2 - Stage 1 (Low speed, right/offside fan) Relay 22 - Radiator Fan 2 - Stage 2 (High speed, right/offside fan) Cited from this very forum. https://911uk.com/porsche/relay-location.30882/ I will see if i can trigger these using a bridge cable on Friday - god bless work from home!

Same here, I have those RS resistors on mine too.

Thanks all for your comments. I finally found time to have the air con re-gassed on Friday. A pressure test reported that the system held pressure. I drove home with the air con as cold as it could get. I had to turn it off as it was too cold!!