How difficult is it really to R&R a front evaporator on a 01 T&C? Also are there any brands to stay away from and what is the best? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!

 

its a pretty tough job,heres a discription of whats involved.keep in mind you going to need a way to remove the freon and reinstall the freon.i would go with dealer ship core for better fit.
DESCRIPTION
The evaporator is located in the heater-A/C unit housing, behind the instrument panel. The evaporator is positioned in the heater-A/C housing so that all air that enters the housing must pass over the fins of the evaporator before it is distributed through the system ducts and outlets. However, air passing over the evaporator fins will only be conditioned when the compressor is engaged and circulating refrigerant through the evaporator tubes. The heater-A/C unit housing must be removed from the vehicle to access the evaporator for service. The evaporator cannot be adjusted or repaired and, if faulty or damaged, it must be replaced.

 

You have to completely disassemble and remove the dash and then the HVAC box. Since your evaporator is leaking, I doubt you have to worry about recovering refrigerant as it will have leaked out (you'd still want to check the system for any pressure before disconnecting just to be sure.) Anyway, it is a major job-- I think the official time for it is about 10 hours. I don't think it's beyond a reasonably competent DIYer, but it is a lot of parts and a lot of time. If you decide to take it on, either buy the factory service manual or a subscription to alldatadiy.com for your vehicle ($25/year) so you can print the service information. Whether you do it yourself or have someone else do it, be sure to replace the heater core at the same time. It's no extra work to do so and is likely to prevent another dissassembly down the road.

 

I just subscribed to alldata last night and was going over the details there and have seen it done a couple of times. Just hate to pay a extra $700 plus for a job I can handle but will definetly take me longer. Never like taking dashes apart and really only have pulled 1 entire dash apart. Yes the freon is totally gone so recycling it is not a issue at this point.
Next question is how much oil (IF any) would be recommended to put in once I change evaporator, dryer, & expansion valve?
Thanks In Advance!

 

just a couple oz's ,you can handle it.might take a little longer ,but you'll be 700.00 richer.

 

Thank you! I am sure I can handle it is just the time thing which is hard to come by if yhou know what I mean. The alldata details are absolutely awsome and great detail so with that information anyone can do it. Also I have the tools and have done sevral AC jobs but never had to pull the dash so far (Been lucky). Anyway I appreciate your help and hopefully I can get to it in the next couple of weeks because it is starting to get warm here in Florida and a van with out AC can be brutal.

 

are u sure its an evap and not a condensor?

 

Ubale to find any leaks at the condensor, comp, or lines and I can smell freon out the vents. Also did I mention that the van has 82000 miles which seems to be the magic number for evaporators on these things. Use to work on the same property of a used car lot and can't tell you how many I watched them fixed and almost all of them where at the same mileage. Find that kind of weird but seen stranger things.