air conditioning - replace evaporator?

firefly08

The ac compressor seized in my Audi A6 (C5). I pulled the orifice tube and found that it has some metal shavings on it:



Is this bad enough that I should replace everything in the system? I have a brand new compressor on the way, and I don't mind buying a new condenser and flushing the lines...but it's a huge job to replace the evaporator in these cars so I was hoping I could avoid it. On the other hand I have read that if it's badly contaminated then it could ruin any new components I install. I've been told it's a waste of time to try to flush the evap due to it being parallel flow.

I have searched a bit and found pics of badly contaminated systems...most of them look much worse than mine. Should I chance leaving the evaporator in place?

TURRICAN

Hope you washed your hands with cillit bang or you will have no hands to do anything.:D

If the compressor is gone then just change the compressor.

firefly08

TURRICAN wrote: »

Hope you washed your hands with cillit bang or you will have no hands to do anything.:D

If the compressor is gone then just change the compressor.

You don't reckon the metal debris is a problem? Could it not damage the new compressor?

TURRICAN

If it was my car id just put in the compressor.
I cant see it doing harm.

If you want peace of mind go for your way.

firefly08

ok, well at the very least I'm going to replace the compressor and condenser (and drier and orifice tube of course) and flush all the lines. I'll try flushing the evaporator too and see how that goes. All that stuff is not much extra work if replacing the compressor. Getting to he evaporator is the only really hard part.

TURRICAN

You might find this helpful
http://www.vaglinks.com/Docs/Audi/C5/Bentley_Audi_A6_C5_Interior.pdf