960 How to change the Air Con Condenser.

[Alec Dawe]

How to change the Air Conditioning condenser on a 960.

Sorry no pictures, light was all wrong.
You'll need a good socket set, an adjustable spanner, some small metric open end spanners, and a torx set.
Also a can of WD40!!

The AC Condenser is mounted directly in front of the radiator, and can be removed without taking the rad out the car if you are careful

For a couple for days before you start this, you will need to soak the clamping bolt for the connection for the pipes into the condenser. This is located at the bottom right hand corner of the condenser, The centre bolt screws through an alloy clamp into an alloy block on the condenser. The bolt is steel, and so you will almost certainly have dis-similar metal corrosion taking place here unless lots of grease was applied when the condenser was originally fitted.

Bits to remove:-
Remove the little trim panel that goes between the front top cross member (the one that also holds the bonnet locks etc) and the grille. This is held by two plastic twist fasteners, turn 90 degrees then wriggle the panel out. Remove the two spring clips that hold the grille, and remove the grille.
You can possible do without the next stage, but it makes access SO much easier. Remove the air intake tube; this goes from in front of the rad to the air filter box. It 'just' pulls off, but is a pain to get out due to the restricted clearances. I found it helped to loosen the top right retaining screw for the left hand headlight to gain a little more room.
Remove the odd plastic whatnot that screws onto the diagonal cross brace in front of the rad (torx head self tapper).
Remove the left hand and right hand air guide plates (on the insides of the headlights) 2 times torx screws in each, and then remove the left and right hand plastic brackets behind these air guides, ditto torx screws.
Under the car, remove the big plastic air guide that goes between the front bumper and the bottom of the radiator. This is held on to the bottom bumper lip by three clips, and on to the bottom of the radiator by (god help us) three Hugely long torx headed self tapping screws, which screw into the bottom channel of the radiator. Don't loose the three plastic spacers which the screws pass through, or when you replace them, you'll puncture the bottom of the radiator.
In the engine compartment, remover the two torx screws which hold the electric cooling fan onto the radiator shroud, and also the 10mm bolt that holds the electric cable securing clip to the right hand chassis rail (you need to remove this to get sufficient slack in the cable). Lift the fan up out of the top bottom locating lugs, and place it on top of the engine.
Remove the three torx screws holdoing the plastic radiator shroud to the rad, and remove the shroud.
Remove the two clamps that secure the top of the radiator.
Remove the two torx headed machine screws at the top front of the radiator that secure the air guide that goes between the condenser and the radiator.
Very carefully, remove the top pipe from the gearbox to the radiator oil cooler. Black pipe that goes into the top right of the right side of the radiator. You need to hold the bigger brass hex nut firmly whilst you undo the smaller nut that actually holds the pipe. If the big one turns, you compromise the radiator, so hold firm. Pull the oil pipe out of its connection, and move carefully to the side of the radiator.
Under the car, remove the centre clamp bolt for the two AC pipes into the condenser, again you will need to hold the alloy block on the condenser, or it will twist and fracture all the condenser connections. I used an adjustable spanner adjusted to fit round the alloy block. Centre bolt is a 12mm hex head, but its umpteen turns long!
Pull the pipes out of the condenser, and look for the orangy-yellow 'O' rings either on the ends of the pipes, or still stuck inside the connections on the condenser. (you should really use new 'O' rings, but the old ones should be OK if undamaged and still flexible.)
Remove the plug from the pressure switch on the bottom of the condenser (taking care that you release the spring clip that holds the plug in place) then remove the pressure switch from the condenser. (early cars had three pressure switches I think, later ones only one. I believe that you can only get the condenser with 1 boss these days, and I have no idea how the wiring has to be altered to suit the single switch, sorry).
From the top, lift the radiator and move the top of the rad back towards the block. Remove the air guide from between the condenser and the rad. If you have removed the two top screws, nothing else holds it in place, apart from it being stuck there with age and heat. I thought mine was bolted on somewhere, but it eventually came loose. This air guide is probably very brittle, so take care, the top securing lugs broke on mine, but I repaired the guide by using some copper strip I had in the garage to make new securing lugs bolted to the sound bit of the sir guide.
With this out of the way, the condenser will lift out of its two bottom brackets, and lift out of the car. You need to be very careful of the two brackets on the bottom of the condenser that these don't damage the radiator during this. Ideally, you need two people, one to hold the top of the radiator back, and one to lift the condenser. Its not heavy at all, just you need more that two hands to be safe.
Replacement, as they say, is a reversal of removal!! You might need to swap the mounting brackets off the old condenser to a new one, not sure if the new condenser comes with brackets. I didn't have to, because my 'new' condenser was a sound second hand one.
When reinstalling the air pipe to the air cleaner, it was very difficult to get through the gap at the side of the rad. I found that heating the round end that goes over the air filter box connection by soaking in hot water for a couple of minutes made it flexible enough to slide through the gap much easier.

I've probably missed something on this, so just ask and I'll reply if I know the answer!