air con pipe leak

[pralognan]

My 1991 uk car has a leak in the pipe 80321-SL0-003 where it passes the ABS bracket and the steel has been bearing against the aluminium air con pipe. The part is available in Japan $500,not available in the UK. My idea is to remove and weld repair. Any advice/ideas would be welcome.

[goldnsx]

Picture of the area?

[Kaz-kzukNA1]

That's the long-long aluminium pipe running all the way front to rear across the centre floor channel and connects to the flex hose before the compressor. It's the low pressure side.
The parts no. suggests your NSX left the factory with R12 system.

You are going to have fun removing that pipe especially if you have EPS rack.

It's aluminium so take it to your nearby radiator shop or someone with aluminium welding experience.

If the damage is straight pipe section, you could use line-splice product (or something called similar, I don't know what it's called outside Japan) to replace the damaged section by cutting the pipe.
In some cases, you don't need to take the whole pipe off the car.
You will need enough space to use the pipe cutter and also must confirm the minimum length of the straight line.
The image is like doing plumbing on your home copper pipe when adding the isolation valve.

Some of my friends back in Japan are even bending/tubing their own copper pipe and fitting to replace the already discontinued aluminium pipes on a/c system on their old cars.
I don't recommend using copper pipe as it will cause corrosion on the aluminium side by mating two different metal materials but they are happy with it because you just can't imagine driving a car without a/c in Japan.
Because of hot and humid summer, it's fairly easy to get hold of HVAC equipment and materials.
They know the mating pipe will corrode and need creating another pipe after years of usage but they will take it than driving without the a/c.

Hope you will find good welding place or suitable solution.


Kaz

[lotusolly]

When Norton Way replaced my A/C compressor and changed the drier, the technician managed to strip the nut on the pipe that connected to the drier. They wanted to charge me in excess of £300 for a replacement pipe at the time. I cut the pipe so that I could remove the nut as the end is flanged, replaced the nut and rejoined the pipe with a compression hydraulic fitting from a local hose company. Still fine after 5 years and only cost pence.

Olly

[pralognan]

Thanks for the rapid responses. Yes,originally R12,converted to R134a in 2000, and AT so EPS. I guess this long pipe was one of the first parts to be fitted when the car was assembled. Removing the pipe sounds like too much "fun" for me so I'll follow up on the line splice/compression hydraulic fitting ideas. Restricted space behind the ABS mounting bracket will be plenty of "fun"

[pralognan]

Here is the end of the story.I bought a Dorman line splice 800-642,1/2 inch OD from Amazon US for $16. Not really enough straight pipe or space behind the steel tripod bracket which supports part of the ABS to get it to work. Plan B,got a piece of Aircon pipe from a scrap 2004 Civic,about 100mm long with a bore 13mm, just right to slide my 1/2 inch pipe inside.Welded up and now works. Thanks again for your ideas.