Date: Wed, 19 Aug 1998 17:09:47 EDT
Reply-To: Ssittservl@AOL.COM
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <Vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: S Sittservl <Ssittservl@AOL.COM>
Subject: Re: A/C question
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
> I have a 1985 Westy with the A/C unit in the rear. Today my mechanic
> checked the temperature of the air coming out of the vent and told me that
> it was about 60 degrees.... My question is: Is this reasonable? ...
> What can be done to decrease the temperature that does not cost a fortune?
>
> John P.
I have an '88 Westy. I, too, recently had my air conditioner serviced.
The shop replaced the dryer, and fixed some leaky fittings. The air
temperature I get at the vents runs about 56 degrees to 59 degrees,
depending on the outside temperature, etc. The shop that did the work
felt that was as good as it was going to get; my local dealer thought
they could maybe get it a bit cooler, but only maybe, so I didn't bother.
The concensus seems to be that the vanagon A/C is pretty wimpy.
(The fact that my van is dark gray doesn't help, either.)
However, I have been able to improve the comfort level in the van
by improving the air flow of the system. The black foam blanket around
my evaporator had disintegrated, and bits and chunks of black foam
had been blowing from my A/C for months, with little sign of stopping.
So, I took apart the overhead box, and cleaned everything out. While
I was in there, I added lots of weather stripping (the original stuff
having mostly disintegrated), and generally tightened things up, and
made sure all the air went through the evaporator and out the blower,
and nowhere else. After I did this, but before I put the plastic vent
cowling back up, I found that the strong central blast directly from
the blowers cooled the van (especially the front) much better than the
diffused air from the vents did.
So, before I put the vent cowling back up, I cut up and/or off some of
the internal baffles that diffuse the air, which left me with a stronger
central stream. Then, using 1" x 1.5" foam stripping, I made new little
"walls" in the cowling running from each edge of the blower inlet to the
outer edges of the front of the cowling. This closed off the useless rear
corners of the cowling, to ensure that the air didn't get lost back there
while looking for the vents. (I dont know enough about the physics of
airflow to know if it really works that way, but I figured it was maybe
helpful, and harmless at worst.)
Now we tend to keep the outboard vents closed, and direct a strong
central stream between the front seats. The air conditioner is now
much quieter, and the van's more comfortable, even though the air
from the A/C's not as cold as I'd like.
-Steven Sittser
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