Last Summer I had a UAC new air compressor installed, all the old Freon was vacuumed out, (none was in there, clutch went bad) leak checked, system was refilled.. the air conditioning has never worked so good..
Aftermarket A/C Compressor
- Thread starter Scott S
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A bad clutch caused the refrigerant to leak?
Automakers don't produce their own compressors.
Clutch was bad, and if I remember correctly, I pulled the jack stand out, broke the Schrader valve off, from under the compressor.. LOL
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Would Denso/Toyota qualify?
Okay sure. Kind of like the old Delco ones.
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My problem isn't with *who* makes the compressor, it's the remans I don't care for.
I always buy new compressors and have used Chinese ones with no issues. I used a Seltech-Valeo compressor on my 98 Chevy K1500 back in 2007 and it still works great and is still cold. I used a Sanden one on my 1998 Chevy K3500 back in around 2010 and it still blows nice and cold. Both of these were new compressors. I used some no name new compressors for my 92 Cavalier and they lasted for years. I'm on my second compressor since 2006.
I used a reman on an 86 Honda Accord back in the day, lasted a year. I was young and I was broke, and I was delivering pizzas with my car in the Houston area and not having AC was not an option. At that time I had only lived in Texas for about 2 years after growing up in the Pacific NW, and me and the heat were not getting along. Talking R-12 days, early 90s.
Replaced with OEM becaue the price had dropped in half in the year since I replaced it the first time, no problems after that. Maybe that's when Nippondenso opened their US plant. IIRC the first replacement was in the summer of 1991 and the follow up replacement in the summer of 1992. I sold the car, I want to say in the fall of 1997 and the AC was stilll blowing cold with 258K miles.
FWIW the oem price in 1991 was $620 and in 1992 was $317 at the Honda dealer Russell and Smith on south Loop 610 in Houston. I jumped at the $317 price because another reman was going to be around $200 and I had not spent all my money on from the previous summer on beer during the school year.
[edit 2] replaced the receiver dryer both times but never the expansion valve.
Replaced with OEM becaue the price had dropped in half in the year since I replaced it the first time, no problems after that. Maybe that's when Nippondenso opened their US plant. IIRC the first replacement was in the summer of 1991 and the follow up replacement in the summer of 1992. I sold the car, I want to say in the fall of 1997 and the AC was stilll blowing cold with 258K miles.
FWIW the oem price in 1991 was $620 and in 1992 was $317 at the Honda dealer Russell and Smith on south Loop 610 in Houston. I jumped at the $317 price because another reman was going to be around $200 and I had not spent all my money on from the previous summer on beer during the school year.
[edit 2] replaced the receiver dryer both times but never the expansion valve.
Okay. Just going by when you said "Personally I would absolutely buy the factory compressor if available, OEM is always best for AC parts".
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What I meant was I would always pick OEM over aftermarket if available. But if not, I would take any new compressor over a reman.
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A couple of things: I miss the PNW so, so much. My wife and I lived there for 10 years (Portland area)_but moved to the east coast 5 years ago. 2nd, I can definitely understand needing AC in Houston! And yeah you're 'reman' story is very typical of the ones I've heard. They seem to last about 6 months to a year.
Denso is part of the Toyota keiretsu. GM(Harrison) and Ford used to make their own - then came Delphi and Visteon. Delphi sold Harrison to Behr(the German thermal management supplier for BMW/Mercedes/VW, not Home Depot’s house brand paint) while Ford spun that off to Visteon. The former Visteon HVAC business is part of Hanon, a Korean firm that supplies HyunKia and formerly part of Mando, also a HyunKia supplier.
Honda used to make their own compressors, Nissan and Subaru essentially made their own when Hitachi controlled both. Nissan controlled Calsonic but Hitachi also made parts for their child firm. Mitsubishi also made their own compressors.
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I bought a UAC sanden style compressor on Rockauto for my 2001 Chevy Blazer about 2 months ago. The Blazer takes an HT6 style compressor with PAG150, but there is a Sanden style one piece case replacement available, which is supposedly better than the HT6 which has a two piece case design that likes to leak. Also, the Sanden is way more efficient, and it takes PAG46.
This UAC compressor has been super quiet and the A/C is colder than ever. Can’t hear the clutch engagement inside the car at all. Buttery smooth and quiet.
It’s always a good idea to just buy a OEM compressor, in my case an ACdelco. But the reason why I went with the UAC sanden compressor is because I’ve read many good reviews, and it seems that they are pretty stout. Also, it is cheaper than an Acdelco Gold HT6 unit, and the sanden will last longer.
I would recommend a UAC unit if they make one for your car.
Sometimes, an aftermarket part is better than the OEM, and also in a lot of cases cheaper than OEM. Just gotta do the research.
This UAC compressor has been super quiet and the A/C is colder than ever. Can’t hear the clutch engagement inside the car at all. Buttery smooth and quiet.
It’s always a good idea to just buy a OEM compressor, in my case an ACdelco. But the reason why I went with the UAC sanden compressor is because I’ve read many good reviews, and it seems that they are pretty stout. Also, it is cheaper than an Acdelco Gold HT6 unit, and the sanden will last longer.
I would recommend a UAC unit if they make one for your car.
Sometimes, an aftermarket part is better than the OEM, and also in a lot of cases cheaper than OEM. Just gotta do the research.
I ordered the cheapest one from Rock Auto for my older Jag X-Type. It vibrated like crazy over 4500 rpm, but cooled well for a while until the compressor had a catastrophic failure. Rock Auto was good enough to send me another, of a different Chinese brand, which has been perfect for the last 5 or 6 years.
