air con type question

[Fonz]

Hi everyone . Thanks for a great forum. Its helped me a lot .
I just want to check which air con system my MKII 05 galaxy has fitted. Is it the type with a thermal expansion valve and a receiver dryer or is it the fixed orifice tube with an accumulator . ?
Its due a service and a re-gas so I was going to change either the dryer or accumulator depending on the system as I understand they are service items. The car is 10 years old so they are probably due!

[insanitybeard]

Howdy!

It's an expansion valve system, there is a renewable drier cartridge fitted into the condenser- I have started doing a writeup on renewal of the cartridge but have yet to finish it- be warned, it's not the most straightforward or nicest of jobs, there's a few pictures relating to it in this thread.

[Fonz]

Thanks for that. Do you need any special tools or will just plenty of patience be enough

[insanitybeard]

You don't really need any special tools (although obviously the air con system must be degassed first) although one item which would have made removing the circlip for the drier cartridge cap much easier would have been a pair of long nosed straight internal circlip pliers, the circlip is recessed quite a way into the condenser and I found it a total ar$ehole to get out.

Other than that, the front bumper needs to be removed and I found that the two condenser retaining bolts (accessed via the little holes cut in the front panel- arrowed in the below picture, though IIRC the earlier Galaxy front panels didn't have these useful little holes cut into them) on the driver's side need to come out so that you can move the condenser forward slightly in order to withdraw the cartridge- if you don't take them out the cartridge can't clear the front panel when you pull it upward:


[attachimg=1]

[Fonz]

That's great thanks for all your help I'll let you know how I get on