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I have a '96 850 Turbo Wagon. Last year, near the end of the summer, the air conditioning died. Since I thought it was very likely the infamous (and expensive) a/c evaporator I decided not to fix it until this summer.
About 3 weeks ago, I went to the dealer to have the a/c recharged including the dye tracer so the source of the leak could be discovered. After two weeks, I brought it back and the diagnosis was that the evaporator was leaking. As soon as I picked up the car after the evaporator and accumulator had been replaced, I noticed a constant noise from the new evaporator. The noise is reminiscent of fluid flowing in a metal pipe, and loud enough that I can hear it with the fan set at a medium speed, and with the radio on at a regular volume. I have returned the car back to the dealer twice and they evacuated and recharged the system both times. On the first return, I noticed the noise again and had the technician sit in the car. He said that there should be no noise coming from the evaporator and that I should bring it in again the next day (he also claimed they were having some problems with their a/c recharge machine). When I brought it in the second time, they claimed to have their a/c recharge system working properly and recharged the system but said the noise did not disappear. However, this time the service manager claimed that "all 850s make that noise".
I have ridden in many other friend's 850s/V70s/S80s and have not noticed any evaporator noise other than a bit of fluid flow sound for a few seconds after the car is turned off. Likewise, when my a/c was originally working I would only hear the sound briefly when the car was turned off. When I had the old evaporator in the car with the temporary dye trace charge, I didn't notice any noise. I find the noise very irritating, especially since I just spent $CDN 1400 to get the a/c fixed. I suspect that the new evaporator is the culprit, but the dealer refuses to replace it. Has anyone else had experience with constantly noisy evaporators?
Thanks,
Garth Gullekson
1996 Volvo 850 Turbo Wagon
2001 Subaru Outback
1978 Porsche 911 (which I unfortunately recently put into a concrete wall
at Le Circuit Mont Tremblant)
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