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(unconfirmed) Source of AC Evap Failures Possibly Identified [POLL]

Has your AC failed?


  • Total voters
    213

Lancer37

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So from those reporting, there are 187 failures among members of the Mustangg6 forum..? Just for fun I looked at the approximate number of members of the forum (827 pages at 50 members per page), guessed that 75% have S550 Mustangs, (roughly 30,000), and divided divided 187 by 30000. This works out to about 0.62%. Obviously there are a lot of assumptions built in, but it's interesting to me to think about it this way.
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packick

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About a year ago (see May 21, 2019 post) my mechanic thought he had discovered why my 2015 Mustang GT had been losing A/C coolant (refrigerant). He noticed a protruding nub (prong) inside the valve dust caps and believes they were pushing down on the Schrader valve when tightened tight. So he loosely tightened them. I am happy to report that my A/C, which normally looses coolant after a year or less, is performing as-advertised. So in my case, this might have been the cause of my problem.
 

Genxer

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About a year ago (see May 21, 2019 post) my mechanic thought he had discovered why my 2015 Mustang GT had been losing A/C coolant (refrigerant). He noticed a protruding nub (prong) inside the valve dust caps and believes they were pushing down on the Schrader valve when tightened tight. So he loosely tightened them. I am happy to report that my A/C, which normally looses coolant after a year or less, is performing as-advertised. So in my case, this might have been the cause of my problem.
Make sure the schrader is tightened all the way. The cap should provide an extra measure of sealing if it’s typical. Weird that it would cause an issue. They usually have an oring inside of them. The high side (pressure) is the smaller diameter line with the larger port. The large diameter line with smaller port is suction side.
 

GT Pony

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About a year ago (see May 21, 2019 post) my mechanic thought he had discovered why my 2015 Mustang GT had been losing A/C coolant (refrigerant). He noticed a protruding nub (prong) inside the valve dust caps and believes they were pushing down on the Schrader valve when tightened tight. So he loosely tightened them. I am happy to report that my A/C, which normally looses coolant after a year or less, is performing as-advertised. So in my case, this might have been the cause of my problem.
Might want to somehow remove that protruding nub (prong) inside the Schrader valve cap. @Gebxr - the Schrader valve caps do have an O-ring.
 

Genxer

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Might want to somehow remove that protruding nub (prong) inside the Schrader valve cap. @Gebxr - the Schrader valve caps do have an O-ring.
The cap is def not supposed to depress the valve. Something is off there.
 

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Emilbadal

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I replaced my Evap core last weekend with help of my brother in-law. The AC is charged and blows cold again. I decided to go the aftermarket route with the evaporator core and everything else from ford. This is what I believe is the cause of the failure:

- The evaporator core design and method of construction is the root cause of the failure IMHO. The evaporator core seems to be constructed of layers of fins sandwiched together by means of soldering each fin to its adjacent fins. In other words each fin has its headers integrated and then the headers are soldered together. Since these headers have a lot bigger surface area that needs to be soldered, it dramatically increases the chance of leakage due to inconsistencies in soldering. And if you look at the evap core that I pulled out, it's exactly leaking from the soldered area and my guess is that even though Ford changed multiple suppliers and has done multiple part numbers they still couldn't address the issue for good until the last part number which is too early to really tell if they have.


IMG_20210424_171929.jpg

IMG_20210424_171902.jpg

IMG_20210424_171907.jpg
IMG_20210424_171905.jpg
Again this is what I think is happening to these evaporator cores and that's why I decided to go with aftermarket core that had a different design. I hope I never have to go through such repair ever again, because it's such a PITA.
 

GT Pony

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I replaced my Evap core last weekend with help of my brother in-law. The AC is charged and blows cold again. I decided to go the aftermarket route with the evaporator core and everything else from ford. This is what I believe is the cause of the failure:

- The evaporator core design and method of construction is the root cause of the failure IMHO. The evaporator core seems to be constructed of layers of fins sandwiched together by means of soldering each fin to its adjacent fins. In other words each fin has its headers integrated and then the headers are soldered together. Since these headers have a lot bigger surface area that needs to be soldered, it dramatically increases the chance of leakage due to inconsistencies in soldering. And if you look at the evap core that I pulled out, it's exactly leaking from the soldered area and my guess is that even though Ford changed multiple suppliers and has done multiple part numbers they still couldn't address the issue for good until the last part number which is too early to really tell if they have.

IMG_20210424_171929.jpg


Again this is what I think is happening to these evaporator cores and that's why I decided to go with aftermarket core that had a different design. I hope I never have to go through such repair ever again, because it's such a PITA.
Any photos of the aftermarket core design for comparison?
 

Emilbadal

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Yep, The brand is UAC. It didn't come with expansion valve, so I bought a genuine from Ford.

Just a fair warning : The trickiest and most suspensful part was to get the new evaporator's pipe and the expansion valve bent into correct position to seat in the housing. But ,that's something that Ford's TSB warns you about the Genuine ford evaporator part also, that you'll need to bend the pipes in order to get the evaporator seat properly in the Housing. Thankfully everything worked out fine. Let's see how long it will last....fingers crossed


EV 940154PFC__ra_p.jpg
 

Genxer

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I replaced my Evap core last weekend with help of my brother in-law. The AC is charged and blows cold again. I decided to go the aftermarket route with the evaporator core and everything else from ford. This is what I believe is the cause of the failure:

- The evaporator core design and method of construction is the root cause of the failure IMHO. The evaporator core seems to be constructed of layers of fins sandwiched together by means of soldering each fin to its adjacent fins. In other words each fin has its headers integrated and then the headers are soldered together. Since these headers have a lot bigger surface area that needs to be soldered, it dramatically increases the chance of leakage due to inconsistencies in soldering. And if you look at the evap core that I pulled out, it's exactly leaking from the soldered area and my guess is that even though Ford changed multiple suppliers and has done multiple part numbers they still couldn't address the issue for good until the last part number which is too early to really tell if they have.


IMG_20210424_171929.jpg

IMG_20210424_171902.jpg

IMG_20210424_171907.jpg
IMG_20210424_171905.jpg
Again this is what I think is happening to these evaporator cores and that's why I decided to go with aftermarket core that had a different design. I hope I never have to go through such repair ever again, because it's such a PITA.
That is a typical design for modern evaporators, not usually problematic. If it's like the ones I've seen, a material is sprayed all over the core and it is run through an oven where the braze material flows out into the voids. Maybe they somehow did not get good coverage of the braze material.
 

TundraOnKings

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Are 2020 model years subject to this failure?
 

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Cobra Jet

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Are 2020 model years subject to this failure?
Most of the failures seem to be particular to the 2015-2017's. I haven't seen many 2018+ issues posted on this site or these EVAP core threads.

Also to note:
If a 2015-17 owner has issues beyond warranty, call the Ford 800#. Explain the issue and they should help with the repair costs as this is a very well known issue. Others have posted that Ford was willing to discount their repairs.
 

ydoucare

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Just had mine replaced on a 2015 EB at around 57,000 miles. Only took 5 trips to the dealer over the course of 2 years to get them to replace it, in which it took them a full month to do the job (paid for by extended warranty). I was driving a Civic for so long I had to re-acclimate my self to my own car when I got it back. Gotta be the worst dealership service department I've ever seen. These idiots couldn't diagnose a blue sky on a cloud-free day.
 

HoosierDaddy

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Just had mine replaced on a 2015 EB at around 57,000 miles. Only took 5 trips to the dealer over the course of 2 years to get them to replace it, in which it took them a full month to do the job (paid for by extended warranty). I was driving a Civic for so long I had to re-acclimate my self to my own car when I got it back. Gotta be the worst dealership service department I've ever seen. These idiots couldn't diagnose a blue sky on a cloud-free day.
What dealer for fellow forum members info?
 

HoosierMustang

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Just had my 3rd evaporator replacement at 20K miles. I've got a 2015 ecoboost. First two were under warranty. 3rd one cost me $2K.

Are people able to call the Ford number post repair and get reimbursed?
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