03 Lancer A/C Expansion Valve Replacement Questions
 

Hi everyone. So my a/c compressor clutch has been noisy for like a year and finally gave up the ghost about a month ago to the point where the compressor seizes and I bust my a/c and p/s drive belt.

I'm getting tired of the heat and even more tired of no power steering. I decided to bite the bullet and I purchased a new a/c compressor and I'm ordering the receiver/drier and o-ring kit today.

I've been doing a great deal of research and I plan on removing and flushing all the lines. Most sites also say you should inspect/replace the expansion valve whenever a component fails. I'm a little worried about how hard the expansion valve is to get to.

I have a PDF disc of the factory service manuals and their drawings and instructions I've always found to be misleading and they tend to over estimate how much crap you need to remove to get to things.

From the service manual it LOOKS like the expansion valve is mounted on the back of the evaporator inside the heater unit case. Their instructions seem to indicate I need to remove the entire dash, the heater core etc. to get to it. I know the area is a little tight but then again when I did the blend/door and heater cable swap in the famous "Temperature selector hard to turn" TSB they recommended a TON of work that wasn't necessary to actually get to things.

Has anyone swapped out an A/C expansion valve on a lancer similar to mine? I have the 2003 Oz Rally. Can it be managed without removing the ENTIRE dash and heater core or is that required to get to things from above? I'd love to hear from someone how hard that part is, because it generally seems to be the biggest PITA of all.

I know this is an old question/thread, but I was looking for the answer to this yesterday and could not find it. We ended up doing a lot of unnecessary work because we couldn't find a solid answer on the internet...so here it is.

My girlfriend has a 2006 Lancer ES 2.0. We replaced the A/C Compressor, the reciever drier, the expansion valve, and flushed the lines.

After a couple of hours of tearing the dash apart trying to get to the heater core box we realized that the Expansion Valve can be removed from the 'engine side' of the firewall. Follow your high pressure and low pressure lines until they dissapear into the firewall. This should be right behind the engine block near the middle. There are 3 bolts, 1 is a 10mm socket. Remove that one first, next there are two little bolts with hex heads on them. They should be a metric 8 allen key. Once you remove those 3 bolts you should be able to just pull and the plastic boot covering the expansion valve AND the expansion valve itself will come right out. Given that you've disconnected the lines already from the compressor.

Hope this helps anyone trying to replace one of these. We spent 3 hours tearing the dash apart and 3 more hours putting it back together once we realized we didn't need to.

Does anyone know about 2002 Lancer?
 

Longtime reader but first time poster.

I have a 2002 Mitsubishi Lancer and thinking of doing the same as OP. Does jrb1and2 or anyone know the location of expansion valve for 2002 Lancer?

It seems like 2002 through 2006 Lancers have similar if not same parts.


If anyone sees this can they confirm? May be some kind 2002 Lancer owner who has done this or has capability to do this might happen to read this?

Anyone please...I need to replace compressor with drier and expansion valve.

It's a bear...
 

I have a 2006 Outlander, should apply to models as early as 2003 - the 2006 was the last year of this style. I also needed to replace the expansion valve and looking at the process for dropping the dash - yikes. Seeing this thread gave me hope it could be done through the firewall, and it is possible. It is a 10mm socket to remove the lines, and 4mm Allen head (use a high quality socket based adapter not some cheapie key). Be careful because these older cars will have corrosion. In my case, I was able to remove the top one, but not the bottom one as it stripped out. Ultimately I removed the throttle body to get better access (give it a good cleaning while it is off). Through pain and suffering was able to drill out the head of the bottom bolt with a right angle drill and a stubby bit. Getting the valve off the evaporator is another issue - it is stuck on there pretty hard. Grabbing the valve with some slip joints and jiggling it quite a bit did nothing. You almost need to make a tool that can get in between the two parts to pry them apart - I ended up using a wood chisel and was able to get them to pry apart with lots of patience and a lucky angle. The Monday morning quarterback in me wonders if I could have rigged up a mini poor-mans slide hammer using a longish bolt to thread into the threaded hole in the valve and use a fender washer and a socket as the weight to get these apart. Simply using a threaded bolt and attempting to pull/pry it was ineffective, but maybe with the slide hammer approach it would have worked better than a straight pull. There is not a ton of room back there. The recessed socket head screws are M5x.8 60mm long with a head diameter of 8.5,, and height of 5mm (McMaster 91292A197 for stainless), as an FYI for anyone who needs to replace a bolt there. All said and done, perhaps the dash may have been the easier route - so be prepared for this eventuality. When I was done I tested the repair by making sure it held vacuum for an hour.

To add to my pain, I also tried to replace the receiver/dryer due to the age of the system, having it open for so long for replacing a hose and the expansion valve. Given the corrosion of those bolts I ended up snapping a line and am now in for a condenser. This can be replaced by removing the upper radiator hose, coolant reservoir, and the electric fans. Two bolts that hold the condenser in are behind the front trim.

Good luck to all who attempt this repair!