With an obvious condensor leak the zed in the workshop it looked like a straight forward replacement job, but no this was anything but.

 

The condensor replacement on a zed goes one of two ways, either the alloy threads undo with out issue or they strip out the threads and you stuffed. So with this in mind its a case of slowly, slowly with lots of WD40 in the threads. But once the condensor was removed it was clear there was a second leak as the injected dye had left tell tale signs on the front member ( under the radiator ) this could not be seen with the condensor in place.

 

The pipe is held down to the front member with a plastic clip and its most bizzare that the plastic clip holding down the alloy pipe actually causes the problem. The problem had now become much larger than the original job with this pipe running all the way to the evaporator behind the dash it means a time consuming strip out.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once all stripped out you can finally release the pipe works at the bulk head, now the small case of wiggling it all out! Oh and the strip out including removing one of the steel turbo/ intercooler pipes and to release this the near side tension road shoe plate need removing also!!!!!!!

 

 

 

The dye was slightly visable from the front when we removed the condensor but with the additional pipework removed it was very clear to see.

 

 

And here is the offending pipe, you can see the split that was facing down under the clip when in place completely hiding the leak

 

 

 

Refitting the new pipe is a mare as it is a shaped pipe that is entwinned with the larger pipe too and clearly is fitted before the engine at the factory, but perseverance is the key and of course care as it is only a light alloy pipe..... now off to get it gassed up ... fingers crossed.

 

Jeff TT

Patience of a saint comes to mind mate ! :)