When changing the AC evaporator on a BMW E30, there’s definitely a right and a wrong way to do it.

The glovebox is attached to the car by a brass-colored piano bracket. If you remove the black screws, you’re going to spend a lot of time realigning the glovebox when reinstalling. Instead, if you remove the green nuts (threaded onto studs), you’ll be able to slide the glovebox out and reinstall it very easily without much realignment.

To remove the evaporator, you can follow this video up to the point where the expansion valve is removed. However, you don’t need to remove the expansion valve from the evaporator; leave it attached. With the center console out of the way, you can slide the evaporator out—it’s not bolted in; just pull it out. It’s tight between the ECU wiring harness and two AC hoses, but it will come out!

To provide more space, move the center console out of the way. You can remove the 10mm plastic nut under the rear ashtray and the 10mm plastic nut under the shift boot.

Information on what to do with the evaporator freeze probe temperature switch is scarce. The answer is: nothing! When you slide the evaporator out, the probe will remain in place, and when you reinstall your new evaporator, it will slide into one of the pre-drilled holes as you push the evaporator into its cavity.

This entry was posted on September 13, 2024 at 5:00 pm and is filed under Do it Yourself. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.