Evaporator Failure
 

Ran into my first failure with my 04 last week. I was driving on the highway at about 70 mph with the A/C on when I noticed what appeared to be steam coming from the center vents. The steam was not warm and did not appear oily however the A/C soon went warm. Lucky me. Seems that the evaporator has failed and I was wondering if this seems to be a common failure and if so, what are some experiences with the evaporator?

Looking at the parts diagram, I believe that I will have to remove the entire dash to access the evaporator. Its somewhat important to me to have working A/C as my kids ride in the car with me most of the time. We can have the windows down most of the time, but on 90+ degree days like yesterday was, it would be nice to have working A/C. I priced the evaporator out at Mazda and its about $560 for the evaporator itself. That requires disassembling the heater box and replacing the evaporator. Or, for a measly $2800, I can buy the entire heater/evaporator assembly....How about not, lol. Anyone have experiences with the evaporator replacement?

yes u have to remove the dash to replace it.

it's not THAT bad, but if this is ur first time, u need at least a weekend for it, not to mention after remove/install/reassemble u gotta recharge ac again.

if u have someone who can help that would be great, otherwise ...

I'm no stranger to dash removal as I have been restoring RX-7's for quite a few years. I can pull one in an FB in about 45 minutes. Do you know if there's a guide on dash removal? If not, perhaps any tips on removing the dash?

Well its the same as removing any other's dash, u have to remove center console, loosen th3 steering rack, unplug everything related, and u might need a hand to help moving the dash out, with limited space its kinda heavy to lift