AC unit 94 XJS convertible

I have a 94 XJS convertible. My AC evaporator has a leak. Can anyone advise me if I have to take out the entire AC unit in order to remove the evaporator?
Thank you in advance.
RonW

You have to remove the entire dashboard to do it. This would be the time to replace your passenger side airbag wood trim if you need to, as the entire dashboard has to come out for that as well

Sadly, the answer is yes. The evaporator is located inside the climate control assembly “box” along with the heater core and two blend flaps.

How do you know it’s the evaporator that’s leaking?

Before you go to all the trouble (and it’s a bunch) of removing the assembly why not perform a vacuum test on the evaporator while it’s still in place. You can do this in the engine bay by removing the expansion valve and capping off one of the two pipes going to the evaporator through the firewall. Now hook up an inexpensive hand vacuum pump to the other pipe and try to pull a vacuum.

If you can pull a vacuum and it holds for an hour or two then it’s “probably” not your evaporator that’s at fault and the leak is somewhere in the engine bay. At this point I would go a step further and now carefully pressurize the evaporator and see if it holds the pressure.

These tests may seem like a lot of trouble, but actually pulling out the evaporator housing is a lot of, lot of, lot of trouble.

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I have done the leak test. The vacuum bled down in less than 15 seconds. The hand held tester indicated the leak was inside the car under the dash.
Thanks for your help.
RonW

Ron …

Bummer !

If you did the vacuum test right at the evaporator pipes then there’s no doubt that’s where the leak is.

16%20PM

Here’s what the unit looks like.

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