I thought this might be helpful for people since I couldn't find any air conditioning removal writeup on the forum when I was doing this.

I'm removing the A/C to reduce weight for autocross. Also, the A/C doesn't work, and I'm not going to waste money on servicing it.

I took off the front bumper to make it easier to take out the condenser and lines on the left and right side of the radiator.

1. Remove the three 10mm nuts on each side that hold the bumper to the fenders.

2. Remove the four nylon fasteners at the bottom of the opening in the bumper.

3. Remove the four 10mm bolts and metal trim piece at the top of the opening in the bumper.

4. Remove the four bolts (two on each side) at the top of the bumper (right under the hood).

5. Pull off the bumper slightly. Then, reach inside and disconnect the turn signal connectors.

6. Take off the bumper.

7. Disconnect the battery terminals, and remove the battery from the car. (This will make it easier to reach the refrigerant canister later on.)

8. Cut the A/C belt. It's easiest to get to it from under the car. If you may want to reuse it at some point, you can remove it after taking off the other belts.

9. At this point, I removed the air intake to get access to the A/C lines going into the compressor. First, disconnect the mass airflow sensor connector.

10. Remove the hose that goes from the PAIR valve unit to the intake air box.

11. Remove the two 10mm bolts that connect the intake to the fan shroud and radiator bracket.

12. Remove the three hoses that go into the intake.

13. Disconnect the hose on the bottom of the intake that connects to the resonator (located on the right side of the radiator). You can see it in the picture right behind the upper radiator hose.

14. Loosen the four clips that hold the air box closed.

15. Loosen the clamp that holds the intake to the throttle body, and remove the intake from the car.

16. Cover the throttle body with something to keep out dust/debris.

17. To get some more room to work in the engine bay, remove the lower part of the air intake from the car. Remove the bolt that holds it in place, and then pull it toward the right side of the car to take it off the notches it sits on.

18. Unbolt the two A/C lines attached to the top of the compressor. If your system is charged, take it to a service station to have the refrigerant removed. My system was empty.

19. Unplug the electrical connector to the compressor, remove the four bolts that hold the compressor in place, and take it out from the bottom of the car. (I had to cut the connector since I forgot to unplug it and couldn't disconnect it normally with one hand while holding up the compressor with the other... lol... rookie mistake.)

20. Remove the four bolts attaching the compressor bracket to the engine block, and take off the bracket.



21. Use vice grips or large open-ended wrenches to disconnect the A/C lines from the evaporator.



22. Remove the A/C lines from the refrigerant canister (located by the battery tray), and remove the A/C line going from the evaporator to the canister.

23. To remove the A/C line that goes between the engine and firewall, remove the one bolt that holds it to the firewall. Then, disconnect the two pieces of the line. (There's a joint where the line exits from behind the engine on the left side of the car.) Slowly wiggle out the line from the right side of the car. I'm pretty sure you can't pull it out from the left side. The picture shows the removed A/C line.

24. The radiator needs to come out to remove the condenser. Take off the hose that attaches to the top of the charcoal canister on the left side of the radiator. Moving this hose out of the way will make it easier to take off the fan shroud.

25. Remove the air relief plug (located near the intake), radiator cap, radiator drain plug, and coolant drain plug on the bottom of the engine block to empty the engine of coolant. Replace all of the plugs after the coolant has been drained.

26. Disconnect the upper and lower radiator hoses from the radiator.

27. Remove the radiator shroud. Make sure you have loosened all of the clips that hold it in place before pulling it out. The picture shows what all the clips look like.

28. Remove the two bolts that hold the electric fan in place, disconnect the electrical connector, and remove the fan.



29. Unbolt the two brackets that hold the radiator to the chassis.

30. Clean out the garbage between the radiator and condenser.

31. Remove the radiator from the car.

32. Disconnect the two A/C lines going into the condenser.



33. Remove the two 10mm bolts that attach the condenser to the chassis.

34. Unbolt the bracket that holds the A/C line in front of the condenser to the chassis.

35. Remove the condenser.

36. Unplug the electrical connector that goes to the refrigerant canister, remove the two bolts that hold the canister in place, and take it out (with the remaining A/C line that it's attached to).

37. Install the radiator, fan shroud, and intake.

38. Install the front bumper.

39. Reconnect the battery.

40. Refill the engine with coolant as specified in the factory service manual (maintenance section).

Full A/C system except for the evaporator. (Everything is for sale.)

I'll post an addition to this writeup as soon as I remove the evaporator.

I weighed everything on a bathroom scale. The condenser and electric fan together were 18 lbs. The compressor, canister, lines, and hardware together were 35 lbs. That's a total of 53 lbs., and the evaporator should add another 2-3 lbs.
Modified by mirochuki13 at 2:59 PM 3/14/2008

good job, i would pull mine... but the ac works.

i bring my doggie everywhere, so she needs to stay cool in the summer. lol

good write up, lucky for me, i was able to pull my A/C stuff out while i was doing my motor swap. everything was already out of the way for the A/C component extraction.

wonder how much all that weighs

53 lbs. total.

I do not mean to be rude. I have tried searching and can't find anything...
How do I view these thumbnails as they will not show up for me, when i click on view in new tab it even says server not found.
This writeup is awesome but pics would be nice