Aircon Remoal, pro's con???

[Azman]

Morning guys,

Thinking of doing the above, hints tips, do's and don't please.

Is it worth it?
How much weight is removed from the front?
What parts do I need to do it?

I'm figuring that the whooshing noise at standstill is from this so as I don't use it I might as well save a touch of weight.... Especially as I am going to be in there when the Samco's arrive.

Thoughts?

Az

[shark_90]

I've removed mine as part of the S2's diet. I reckon I've probably saved about 40kg perhaps a little more, not sure as I've never weighed the parts.

You don't need any parts, but what you DO need to do is put the bolts back in where it mounts to the block. Not doing so = quite a large loss of oil and a lot of smoke!! Ha!

I just tied a bag over the end of the exposed pipes that I'd disconnected. Home mechanics - you can't beat it can you.

[Azman]

Cool on that one. Do you need to replace any of the parts inside the car like the tunnel that the ecu fits too?

[K Simmonds]

I've just done mine, to do a proper job you need the the heater blower, heater resitor, the moulding they fit to and the non aircon heater controls, also the glovebox come to think of it as the aircon one is pants. Oh yes and theres a blanking plate that goes in the bulkhead behind the ECU to block the hole where the drier pipes come in to the car. I can do some photos if you want as mines still at the striped stage, I have other thngs to do before putting it back together.

[Azman]

Cheers matey that would be great

[Rusty]

Be interesting to see pics of the blower as all the engine bay stuff on mine is removed and at some point I plan to sort the rest of it...

[Jamo]

I want my aircon working but it's such a low priority due to the weather

[CoupeWannabeS2]

Just a thought, my air-con is dead - but I like having the air-con rad in place as it offers protection to the main cooling radiator. Ie any stones that might take out the main radiator have to get through the redundant air-con radiator first. I'm kind of using the aircon rad as a "shield".

[Paulgo]

I removed mine as I had a rather interesting dealer fit unit which was well beyond reasonable repair. Also had a bizarre "shelf" fitted under the glove box to house the ECU! It was a dash out job, I replaced the blower unit with a spare non aircon unit I happened to have, but just left the glovebox. As I recall I had to fill two big holes in the passenger side firewall that took the pipes and a whole load of wiring (can see inthe second pic).



and this with the bleeder out!




Bit of an eek! The aircon blower was huge so it was no wonder the ECU didnt fit where it normally wouldve done! Not sure if this is the same a factory fit unit but should give you an idea!

cheers

Paul

Paul

[K Simmonds]

Here's a couple of photos, the first one shows both blower box's the one at the back is the aircon one. The second pic shows the bit of loom that you need, it just plugs in. The last pic is one of the pipes from the engine bay, it's a s0d to remove.

[K Simmonds]

The blanking plate and the hole where it goes. This could made from scratch fairly easily.

[Acidburn]

Should be worth doing for the weight removal, if your after a blower unit matts2 has one that I saw in his spare avant. Dash removal ain't too bad I might attempt this at the weekend on the avant so I can do some wiring properly rather than hanging underneath

[s2driveruk]

i can weigh the compressor if you like as i have a spare on the bench but its not that significant a weight to be honest. I don't think removal of all components will add up to 40kg saved weight IMO. Sure there was a thread years back on here where it was agreed that about 15kgs was the approx system weight....

[johne]

@Azman

Don't do it! Having air-con is the best way to stop the windscreen steaming up on damp winter days as well as being nice on the few days when it is actually hot...........

You'll save 10Kg, 15Kg tops

Most of the weight to be saved is in the compressor so if you must go this route I'd just remove the compressor, front radiator, underbonnet pipes and leave the heater and dashboard alone. Taking the dashboard out is a pain and you won't need any parts from a non A/C car this way.

As you can see from the pics, the non A/C blower motor is smaller - and a tad lighter - than the A/C one. They are also matched to their respective resistor packs for speed control so change them together.

.................but you will get a bigger glove box and be able to sell the rest of us the bits for spares!

[Azman]

Don't seem to have the steam up problem to be honest, nice and dry inside