[hylander6361]

hey guys,

i have a 2000 subaru outback sedan limited, which i bought primarily as my second car for mostly winter driving. i purchased the car w/o working A/C, a little look under the hood and i found that the compressor was not even hooked up, so tried messing with that and found the compressor is bad, now me mainly driving this car in the winter. is it possible to get rid of the compressor and plug all the hoses for the A/c. or will that mess something up with the heating as well? reason being no real need to have it on, i do not plan on replacing.

thanks for the help!

 

[Saint J VT]

I believe you can just put an idler pulley mechanism in place of the AC pump, or, perhaps remove the belt completely. I am not sure how the 2000 car is.

Unless you are starting to take every AC component out of the car (meaning removing the entire dash and removing the AC Condenser, Evaporator, etc.), you should not affect the heat or anything else for that matter.

Of course, if you want all of the above removed, you will need to replace parts with those from a NON-AC 2000 car!

Hope this helps!

 

[DavidPeab]

If the system is still charged with R-134A (freon) be careful about removing any lines. You don't want a hole in the ozone over your driveway or to inhale or get any of that stuff in your eyes. The one place it would be nice to have A/C, should you have a change of heart, in the winter is when using the defrost. It works quicker and more efficiently with the A/C drawing the moisture from the car's interior.

 

[hylander6361]

I believe you can just put an idler pulley mechanism in place of the AC pump, or, perhaps remove the belt completely. I am not sure how the 2000 car is.

Unless you are starting to take every AC component out of the car (meaning removing the entire dash and removing the AC Condenser, Evaporator, etc.), you should not affect the heat or anything else for that matter.

Of course, if you want all of the above removed, you will need to replace parts with those from a NON-AC 2000 car!

Hope this helps!

there is a separate belt for the ac compressor, and i guess i hadnt given thought to taking out the condenser/evaporator ect stuff under the dash. but since the ac is not working at all and i dont plan on replacing i may remove at least the compressor from ontop of the motor, and plug any holes that need to be plugged, maybe someday get in the dash and remove the rest (thats always a pain)

why would i have to replace parts from a non ac 2000 car? if they even have any w/o ac?

thanks for the imput!

 

[Saint J VT]

Only if you wanted the car to be a bit lighter, however what will you gain, maybe 50 to 100 pounds, at most?

It would require really tearing into things like the dash and the existing heating system. You would need all new controls that don't have AC, probably new heating/cooling boxes, etc. The trouble would be so much, it would not be worth it.

I once had a vehicle that did not come with air, and I had a guy install an entire new AC system that was all stock, he knew exactly all the different factory parts I needed and he installed an OEM air conditioner. The entire job cost between $800 and $1,000 from what I remember - and that was in the late 80's (double that cost for today's money).

It was a Ford 4x4 pickup truck with Supercab, 250 - 3/4 ton. I bought the truck new, however it did not have air from the factory. The guy who did it was about two hours from where I live, no one locally knew how to do what this guy knew!

Had someone wanted the old parts he had to replace, they could have been in a position like you, removing the AC from the vehicle and needing the correct unseen parts. I agree, the hassle would not be worth it. And, like you say, if you change your mind down the road, if you plug the hoses, you can always add a new compressor later on. I think I would keep the uninstall as simple as possible, maybe just removing the belt if there is a dedicated belt.