Making extra room under you hood

[tercel89]

Our older car's air conditioner finally kicked the bucket after 14 years in 2014. Last year I dismantled all the lines , compressor , and condenser. Now I have so much space under the hood it only takes me 4 minutes to change the oil. SWEET . I only have to go underneath the car to get to the oil drain plug. If you do all your own work I highly recomend yanking all that AC junk out if you aint going to use it . You will have so much room ! To get to the filter I just reach down into the engine compartment and take it out. I dont even need to use ramps anymore to elevate the car. There's the filter looking down into the engine compartment from above. Easy as heck

Edited August 22, 2016 by tercel89

[jhc77]

Don't you have foggy windows in the winter with the humidity? I paid up when my freon left my 1993 S-10. Refill of r-12 cost me a few dollars. Kicking myself to this day for selling it in 2002. 

[tercel89]

3 minutes ago, jhc77 said:

Don't you have foggy windows in the winter with the humidity? I paid up when my freon left my 1993 S-10. Refill of r-12 cost me a few dollars. Kicking myself to this day for selling it in 2002. 

Yeah but I just carry a rag to wipe the window when I use it. We gave this car to our son for college. It's a 2000 Mazda Protégé. It has 252,000 miles on it. When bought it new when he was in preschool . I am a pretty good mechanic but I don't have the tools and such for AC work. And around here no one diagnoses whats wrong with an AC system , they just replace the whole system which is what I could do but I just said screw it . It all worked out great .

[jhc77]

5 minutes ago, tercel89 said:

Yeah but I just carry a rag to wipe the window when I use it. We gave this car to our son for college. It's a 2000 Mazda Protégé. It has 252,000 miles on it. When bought it new when he was in preschool . I am a pretty good mechanic but I don't have the tools and such for AC work. And around here no one diagnoses whats wrong with an AC system , they just replace the whole system which is what I could do but I just said screw it . It all worked out great .

When we bought our '16 Accord in March it hit me that my 7 year old would be driving it someday.  We usually hang on to one 8-10 years if I have a say in it.  Wife would change every 5-6 if I didn't speak up.

[luvmyberetta]

I'm just now getting my '88 Ranger back on the road & will eventually put A/C back in. A few years ago I was having it customized & we installed a V8 stroker, electric fan, & fender mounted electric water pump (so I could use an electric fan & Mustang Cobra lower profile pullies). The V8 install went smooth as silk, but the guy that was doing the custom frame & body work was used to mainly working on older "hot rods" & he yanked the whole A/C & heating system out & molded a piece of sheet metal on the firewall where the heater core used to be. I haven't decided whether to grind off the sheet metal & try to install a factory style system or save up & buy an under the dash hot rod A/C-heater system. Either way that part's gonna suck, but dang that trucks a heck of a lot of fun to drive.

[raildog]

1 hour ago, jhc77 said:

When we bought our '16 Accord in March it hit me that my 7 year old would be driving it someday.  We usually hang on to one 8-10 years if I have a say in it.  Wife would change every 5-6 if I didn't speak up.

Can we introduce our wives to each other so your wife can convince mine not to trade every 24 months I would really appreciate it 

[Murgatroy]

I yanked the A/C out of my little Toyota a long time ago. Thank goodness she isn't my daily driver anymore.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

[blueheeler47]

Tercel89, my 85 Bronco no longer needs it's air conditioner. Are there any of the lines that need to plugged when you remove it? It sure is in the way.

 

Thanks

[abusfullofnuns]

Well....if there is still pressure on the low or high side, then it might be exciting for a moment or two. 

[blueheeler47]

Could be some pressure maybe, as long as it has been since it worked, I doubt it. I will have my son in law take everything loose, just in case there is. I will tell him to be careful though.

[2.ooohhh]

Wow, why the rush to tear out factory installed AC just b/c you don't want to fix it ATM? 

[Trekbike]

Our older car's air conditioner finally kicked the bucket after 14 years in 2014. Last year I dismantled all the lines , compressor , and condenser. Now I have so much space under the hood it only takes me 4 minutes to change the oil. SWEET . I only have to go underneath the car to get to the oil drain plug. If you do all your own work I highly recomend yanking all that AC junk out if you aint going to use it . You will have so much room ! To get to the filter I just reach down into the engine compartment and take it out. I dont even need to use ramps anymore to elevate the car. There's the filter looking down into the engine compartment from above. Easy as heck

I've got you beat big time on access to the oil filter. See below. The filter is on the right hand side of the engine bay, staring you in the face. [emoji3]

[tercel89]

7 hours ago, blueheeler47 said:

Tercel89, my 85 Bronco no longer needs it's air conditioner. Are there any of the lines that need to plugged when you remove it? It sure is in the way.

 

Thanks

No , I just took it all out from under the hood all the way to the firewall. At the firewall I cut the two aluminum hard lines. They don't need to be plugged since all that went in there was the AC coolant.

 

[tercel89]

6 hours ago, 2.ooohhh said:

Wow, why the rush to tear out factory installed AC just b/c you don't want to fix it ATM? 

Oh I wasn't rushing it . The AC has been down for over 2 years . All estimates were well over $1300 and I recharged the system but it would not work. The estimate from all the places around here was more than the car is worth.

[tercel89]

4 hours ago, Trekbike said:

 

 

I've got you beat big time on access to the oil filter. See below. The filter is on the right hand side of the engine bay, staring you in the face.

 

Is that a new Subaru 4 cylinder ?

Edited August 24, 2016 by tercel89
spelling

[Trekbike]

Is that a new Subaru 4 cylinder ?

Yep. Subaru Impreza Sport.

Before anyboby starts in on "Subaru is a Lesbian car", the more research I did on them, the more I became impressed with their Boxer engine design, superior AWD system, reliability, high resale value, fair sticker price, good MPG, brand loyalty, etc.

[OH UNCLE PAUL]

I wouldn't use Fram filters. 

 

But that's just me. 

Edited August 24, 2016 by OH UNCLE PAUL

[Handsome Rob]

21 minutes ago, Trekbike said:

Yep. Subaru Impreza Sport.

Before anyboby starts in on "Subaru is a Lesbian car", the more research I did on them, the more I became impressed with their Boxer engine design, superior AWD system, reliability, high resale value, fair sticker price, good MPG, brand loyalty, etc.

Aaaand Rosie O'Donnell gets the laundry done, can bake you an awesome pie, will clean the windows & is worth more than a few bucks, but a spade's still a spade.....

[KahrMan]

11 hours ago, Trekbike said:

Yep. Subaru Impreza Sport.

Before anyboby starts in on "Subaru is a Lesbian car", the more research I did on them, the more I became impressed with their Boxer engine design, superior AWD system, reliability, high resale value, fair sticker price, good MPG, brand loyalty, etc.

yeah but do you have splinters in your arms?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

You know, from hugging all those trees...

[monkeylizard]

@Trekbike, it's not a real Subaru until you cover every available inch of the back with bumper stickers.

If you had picked up a Forester, you'd need to change your name to Stella and start wearing sleeveless flannel shirts.

 

 

Seriously though, great looking wagon and I'm quite jealous of that filter placement. Subbie does a lot of things right.

[Trekbike]

4 hours ago, KahrMan said:

yeah but do you have splinters in your arms?

You know, from hugging all those trees...

No tree hugging or pot smoking for me, but that doesn't mean as an engineer I can't appreciate the product and what it offers.    

I've discovered that Subaru has their act together as a car company.    I think as time passes the brand will lose more of its past stigma.     If you check out some of the WRX and WRX STI offerings, you'll see those aren't the hippie cars most people associate with Subaru.    They pretty much own the rally car world.       

Edited August 24, 2016 by Trekbike

[tercel89]

17 hours ago, Trekbike said:

Yep. Subaru Impreza Sport.

Before anyboby starts in on "Subaru is a Lesbian car", the more research I did on them, the more I became impressed with their Boxer engine design, superior AWD system, reliability, high resale value, fair sticker price, good MPG, brand loyalty, etc.

Man my wife and me tried to get one new but my wife saw the Honda Accord and we got that . I sure wished we got the Subaru ! I like the engine being laid out "longitudinaly" like regular older cars where the engine is up front and the transmission is behind it . I am so happy for you dude ! Awesome . She started out wanting the Subaru Outback (which I think is AWESOME)  but ended up with the Honda Accord.

[tercel89]

17 hours ago, OH UNCLE PAUL said:

I wouldn't use Fram filters. 

 

But that's just me. 

I have used Fram on this Mazda since 2000 when it was new and it now has 252,000 miles on it and does not burn any oil . I think it will be good  .

[Trekbike]

I am so happy for you dude ! Awesome . She started out wanting the Subaru Outback (which I think is AWESOME)  but ended up with the Honda Accord.

Thanks. It's the first new car I've gotten for myself in 36 years. Started looking at used and the prices were so close to new that it didn't make sense to buy used. I do keep my cars a very long time so that was a factor as well going new.

Sorry for the thread highjack with the Subaru's.

[Lumber_Jack]

18 hours ago, Trekbike said:

Yep. Subaru Impreza Sport.

Before anyboby starts in on "Subaru is a Lesbian car", the more research I did on them, the more I became impressed with their Boxer engine design, superior AWD system, reliability, high resale value, fair sticker price, good MPG, brand loyalty, etc.

1

Don't let your wife drive it, she'll leave you......for another woman