98 Grand Caravan Evaporator

[RobertBolinger]

Hey,



Besides my 2004½ RAM, I have a 1998 Grand Caravan AWD. The front evaporator is leaking-bad. I know that DC has replaced some of these out of warranty but I think I have too many miles-125K.



Anyway know some of you guys work at dealers and may have done this job and could give me pointers-maybe even cut and paste the details from the factory service manual on this job.



The Haynes and Chilton books do not cover AC repairs because it's not considered DIY.

 

[E7mack96]

our '98 caravan needs one too, with just 79,000 miles on the clock

 

[RobertBolinger]

E7mack96,



You need to speak to the dealer-I saw somewhere that DC was covering a bunch of evaporators 93-? up to 80K miles at no charge-one of those "hidden warranties"



Robert

 

[HoleshotHolset]

My buddy used to be a Chrysler tech before he hurt his back really bad.

I stopped by the dealership one day when he was doing an evaporator core on a newer body style Caravan/Voyager...



I could NOT believe how much he had to take apart to do the job. The WHOLE dash... basically down to the firewall had to be removed (placed in the back seating area), steering column moved out of the way, etc. NOT a fun job at all. I pity the poor souls that have to do it. I'd like to see someone plasma cut the firewall - do the job and weld it back up... it's THAT bad.



Matt

 

[RobertBolinger]

Matt,



While that makes sense I believe it would be necessary to either pull the whole engine , or possibly the intake and all related components and maybe even the head against the firewall-anything with a transverse engine is going to have issues making it more difficult to work on ... I'll weigh whether I want to tackle it or not after I talk with somebody knowledgable.



Hopefully I can find a factory service manual somewhere w/o having to pay $90.



Robert

 

[I-6DZL]

I've done them before. Rams, Caravans, Jeeps. Jeeps were the easiest, caravan i'll blow up before i'll do another. I'm 300 LBS crawling under a dash, it's not fun at all.

I would highly recommend paying someone to do the job for you.



You have to pull the dash "pretty panels" in peices and put them in the back. drop the steering column onto the front seat, pull about a hundred screws, about 10 to 12 bolts, and some people are small enough to bungie tie the dash over enough to pull the heater/ac box out, while others like myself are too large, and have to pull the dash completly out. O don't forget about 15 to 20 electrical connectors.



Don't want to scare you from doing this yourself, but there's a time to just say "no". Right now is one of them, and of course to drugs.



Later

Curtis

 

[HoleshotHolset]

I was 1/2 kidding around about cutting up the firewall... would be neat to see someone do, though.



Make friends with a Chrysler service writer... maybe you could find out what the flat rate estimate is for this job. Multiply that times the shop rate and you have a rough idea what it'll cost to get the job done in terms of labor to get it done at the dealer.



If you plan to do the job yourself... $90 for a service manual is money well spent, especially if you decide to keep the vehicle for a while.



Matt