[Dan]

Eric thanks for your video Journalism, I’ve been watching for the last 10 years. Here is my story. I bought a 2007 Hybrid Camry from a Toyota Dealer.in So Cal. It was in pretty good condition when I test drove it Friday night except for some cosmetics; Review mirror was loose, carpet behind the driver seat had the piling removed down to the canvas, no floor mats, no owners manual, window tinting needed replacing, some normal dings for a car with 100K, passenger dash board looked like a kid with baseball cleats was relaxing with his feet up. The car ran well and breaked well, all the electronics work, lights, blinkers, power windows, seats, Sunroof, speed control, Bluetooth, radio, CD player, Aux connections, and the AC and heat. New tires, new brakes and the car fax report said the dealer had serviced the car for the last 6 years including a recent 4 wheel alignment. I ask the sales person what they had done to the car and he said they performed a safety check on the car. The price was $7500 and the car was listed AS IS, so I bought it. When I got home the next morning the AC was blowing hot. I took it to my independent Mechanic and he said the dealer put Freon in it for the test drive and it leaked out over night. I called the sales person and said we checked the AC last night together and it was working, right? and he said yes it was. I said I think you guy to take car of this and he said let me ask my manager. He came back a few minutes later and said the sales manager said sorry, you bought it as is. I said yes but you guys have been servicing this car for 6 years and there is no way you didn’t know the AC was not working. He said sorry why did you think it was so cheap. I told him it was at dealer Kelly blue book for the car and I assumed the discount was because it didn’t show well with all the cosmetic damage. Personally I think there was a little fraud going on hear. I took it to a different Toyota dealer told them my story and ask them to do a complete diagnostic on the car and told them I want to know everything that was wrong with the car. It turned out that the only thing that was wrong with the car was the AC condenser had a leak. They wanted $1500 to replace the condenser and $190 for the diagnostics. I told them I pay for the diag but not the condenser. My independent mech did the job for &530.

[Dan]

Wow thanks for the detailed reply.
So yes i did do a tune up recently changes the spark plugs, tested the spark plug wires and retained them as they are original to the car, put in a new PVC valve, changed oil filter, air filter and coolant recently.
I did inspect the cap and rotor and they looked good. but I will pull the distributor again and do a closer inspection of the coil and cap and rotor.

I will take your advice and look at all the vacuum hoses as a part of regular maintenance, but since this is a intermittent problem I am leaning more to the distributor.

[Dan]

As posted in another reply I found a some R12 being sold by a private party on craig’s list. It cost $35 for about 20oz. I know it is costly for the R12 but less hassle than a retrofit and it will get me through the Santa Ana season in Los Angeles

I couldn’t agree more that he should fix this but after arguing these points with him I feel that he will just break something else. For all I know he did it on purpose to get more work. So I think I will just chalk it up to bad luck.

So I left getting the work done somewhere else and taking him to small claims, which is more time than it probably worth or just filing a complaint with Consumer affairs and hopefully ward others from using this guy buy posting a negative comment on yelp.

[Dan]

I checked craigslist and found sellers of R12 and your right the price is around $30-40 for a 12 oz can where R134 runs about $6.. But all I would would have to do is top off the r12 and my AC would be up.
I saw Eric’s video. He kind of glosses over flushing the lines and removing the oil from the compressor. He just says fortunately he did not have to do this but doesn’t explain why he didn’t have to do it. He replaces the dryer but doesn’t explain if that is necessary for the conversion or if he just had a bad one.
So putting on the retrofit R134a fittings and changing the o-rings is straight forward but the bulk of the work seems to be preping the system. After putting in too much oil he vacuums the system and starts over but does not say how much oil he ended up using. So his video leaves a lot of unanswered questions for me to attempt this on my own..

[Dan]

I am finally about to start this project to R&R the idler pulley on a 1991 acura integra. Any words of wisdom on tools needed and proper steps to get this done?.

[Dan]

To remove the idler pulley the bolt has a star or allen wrench head. Can anyone tell me the right tool and size to use?

[Dan]

Thanks for the reply.

I attempted to just remove the PS belt and then remove the pulley but there is not enough space to get a standard socket and ratchet in to remove the bolt. Is there a special tool for this? or…

So i need to remove the two bolts holding on the PS pump and swing it out of the way without disconnecting the lines
Next I remove the bolt (#19 in diagram) holding on the AC idler pulley bracket,
Next remove the pulley from the bracket and replace with a new pulley.
Next reinstall the AC idler pulley bracket, and AC belt and adjust the tension.
Finally replace the PS pump, belt and adjust the belt tension.

http://estore.honda.com/acura/images/parts/catalogs/EA/13ST801/Estore/illustrations2/ST83Z0200AM.png

Attachments:

• ACdiagram.png

[Dan]

91 acura integra.

My car would also stall and it would crank (without the starter noise) but would not restart after it cooled down. Turned out to be the problem with the distributor.

My wife’s 91 acura had a problem that on hot days it would not start or on short drives where the car did not sit for a while it would not restart until it cooled down. Turned out to be the main relay that controlled the fuel pump. The circuit board had poor connectors were the solder was cracked. When it got hot the connection would get worse and kill the power to the fuel pump.

I think ETCG has a video on the relay.

[Dan]

Thanks for the help.

Replaced the main relay and that addressed starting issue. I believe the fuel pump circuit had arcing connectors.
Blower motor had a bad connector, Also replace the relay and all the speeds now work.

[Author]

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