Replacing 2008 Honda CRV expansion valve

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Nov 30, 2009
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Warner Robins, GA
I had to replace the A/C system in my CRV a couple years ago and used an aftermarket expansion valve. Its been noisy ever since and lately the car will cool fine sometimes and other times it doesn't cool well at all. Replacing the leaking evaporator core and expansion valve from the inside was pretty awful from what I remember, and I found a video where a guy was able to replace just the expansion valve through the hole in the firewall. I was just curious if anyone else had used this method? I've got the last Denso expansion valve Amazon had on the way (discovered the p/n is on national backorder for non made in Japan CRV's).

 
In my experience, that's a very common method of repair on Japanese vehicles

The TXV being sandwiched between the evaporator and line set

If your going through all this A/C work, top it off with cleaning the condenser and a fresh cabin air filter

Maybe consider a evaporator refresh kit if you really wanna be extra about it
 
I just picked up mine today from the shop and apparently, the TXV is required to get the A/C working again. What was the issue with your original system?
 
I just did it about a month ago on a 2010 CR-V. I'll put it this way, my highly skilled mechanic completely gave up on it and said he'd go through the dash the next day. After he left I tried my luck. It took a lot of wiggling, pulling, prying, swearing and luck. I honestly still have no idea how I managed to get it out, but I did. He was speechless. I will say that a 90° curved pick seemed to help a little. I do remember you had to remove the driver's side of the expansion valve first and install it last. Beyond what I just mentioned, I have no idea how to tell you to get it out. Wear green and eat your lucky cereal?
 
I got the job done today. It took a good bit of maneuvering, prying and swearing to get the thing out but it is possible to do it from the engine compartment. I also ground on the plastic inside the firewall with a dremel a little bit to make putting it back in easier. A/C is working well now and no more noise.
 
I got the job done today. It took a good bit of maneuvering, prying and swearing to get the thing out but it is possible to do it from the engine compartment. I also ground on the plastic inside the firewall with a dremel a little bit to make putting it back in easier. A/C is working well now and no more noise.
I told you! Nice work!
 
I got the job done today. It took a good bit of maneuvering, prying and swearing to get the thing out but it is possible to do it from the engine compartment. I also ground on the plastic inside the firewall with a dremel a little bit to make putting it back in easier. A/C is working well now and no more noise.
Nice! I will get a second opinion from my Honda dealer before replacing ours. It seems strange to me that ours would fail from just sitting, as I would suspect a service port o-ring/valve, before a TXV.
 
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