Versa Air conditioning

[MSCOFF]

Has anyone insulated the suction (cold) air conditioning line under the hood from the compressor to the coil? My daughter has an Echo and I traded my wife's Scion for the Versa. Both the Toyotas have notoriously weak air conditioning and many owners insulate the lines wit fome tubing insulation. (DYI on the Scion forum). You can pick up between 5 and 10 degrees temp drop from the dash vents when the AC is on. The Versa has plenty of room between the AC line and the alternator so I slipped a 3'long piece of tubing insulation over the line from the compressor to the last bend in the line before it goes thru the fire wall. Then secured it with tie wraps. On a really warm day with high temps under the hood, the line should stay a bit colder before entering the coil. We'll see. Mark S.

[NCJack]

Thats a great idea, let us know how it comes out. Where did you buy your supplies?

Regards,
Jack

[MSCOFF]

You can get the pipe insulation at a plumbing supply house or probably home depot. Comes in 6' legenths. Armorflex is one brand. I had some 3/4 inside diameter X 2.5 outside diameter from work and used that. Cit a slit the legenth of tje tubing, slid it over the AC line, and used six 6" tie wraps ( also home depot- electrical) to secure it and pull the slit together. Some people use reflective aluminum duct tape to wrap the insulating pipe.I did on the Scion but not the Versa. The AC in the Versa seems pretty good, but it hasn't gotten to warm here in CT. Had 40 deg outlet temp yesterday on fan #2 with outside air (not recirculated) coming in.

[NCJack]

I smell a tutorial!

Regards,
Jack

[dsonyay]

I'm gonna do this over the weekend. A great idea. I live in LA and know about hot humid summers. My Nissan Altima has excellent cooling in summer and the window are not tinted (aftermarket job).

Yesterday was a pretty hot day and when I got in the little V it was an oven. With all that glass, I was pleased to see the A/C cool it down quickly.

One tip-- when you get in a hot car, roll down windows and run A/C full blast until cold air starts blowing, then roll up windows and go to recirc mode. Very simple I know, but I see lots of people leave windows up at the start and it takes longer to cool off the air. Gotta get the bulk of hot air out first!

[dsonyay]

I'm gonna do this over the weekend. A great idea. I live in LA and know about hot humid summers. My Nissan Altima has excellent cooling in summer and the window are not tinted (aftermarket job).

Yesterday was a pretty hot day and when I got in the little V it was an oven. With all that glass, I was pleased to see the A/C cool it down quickly.

One tip-- when you get in a hot car, roll down windows and run A/C full blast until cold air starts blowing, then roll up windows and go to recirc mode. Very simple I know, but I see lots of people leave windows up at the start and it takes longer to cool off the air. Gotta get the bulk of hot air out first!

[dsonyay]

I'm gonna do this over the weekend. A great idea. I live in LA and know about hot humid summers. My Nissan Altima has excellent cooling in summer and the window are not tinted (aftermarket job).

Yesterday was a pretty hot day and when I got in the little V it was an oven. With all that glass, I was pleased to see the A/C cool it down quickly.

One tip-- when you get in a hot car, roll down windows and run A/C full blast until cold air starts blowing, then roll up windows and go to recirc mode. Very simple I know, but I see lots of people leave windows up at the start and it takes longer to cool off the air. Gotta get the bulk of hot air out first!

[MSCOFF]

If I knew how to post a picture, I would. Before you do it, run the car with the AC on. Open the hood and feel the suction line( the cold one). The 3 or 4 feet of line is absorbing heat from the engine compartment before the refrigerant even gets to the coil inside the car.

[dsonyay]

If I knew how to post a picture, I would. Before you do it, run the car with the AC on. Open the hood and feel the suction line( the cold one). The 3 or 4 feet of line is absorbing heat from the engine compartment before the refrigerant even gets to the coil inside the car.

Yeah-- I'd like to see how you did your insulation job too. I have the material and was looking to do it yesterday, but I can't figure how to reach way down there to get the insulation in place. The area right on top seems easy enough, but seems the line decreases in size as it goes down and back into the firewall. Did you actually crawl under to complete the wrap?

BTW-- there's a lot of condensation on those lines, which seems like a sign it would be very worth it to wrap these spots up.

David

[MSCOFF]

I went down as far as I could push the slitted hose. But I didn't go around the last bend to the firewall. I put the tiewraps on very loose and then slid them down the tubing as far as I could reach, then pulled them tight with a pair of pliers. The same with the bend up front going into the compressor. Probably 15% of the line remains uninsulated. Tell us how you make out when you finish. I tried to find the DYI on the Scion and Echo forums but no luck. Mark S.

[viet510racer]

would there be any negative effects if i were to insulate both pipes? is it the top bigger pipe that ur insulating?? and what is the likeliness of the foam insulating melting?? and i also checked at home depot for the foams, there are two types, a Polyethylene foam and rubber foam, is there a suggestion of which to use??

[dsonyay]

viet, there should be no problem with melting. If you want to feel better about it, after you install the foam, you could wrap it with reflective tape from the compressor to at least above the alternator. Once the line gets to the side of the engine and goes back to the firewall, there's not that much heat to worry about (relative to the rest of the area it runs through). That's my feeling, but if someone thinks otherwise, please correct me.

[MSCOFF]

If there is a local HVAC company near you that does commercial work, you could ask one of the service tecks what type of tubing insulation is used on the AC suction lines.The Armorflex that I've used on my vehicles is the same that I have on my boiler piping and solar collector piping. The temps get up around 180 degrees.And the inside of the engine compartment probably doesn't exceed 140 degrees. You'll only need about 4' of 3/4 inside diameter tubing. If any of you guys try this, especially those in the warmer parts of the country, let us know. Mark S.

[bigdaddychia]

I was looking at the A/C and I think I am gonna do something to make it blow colder. There is only one fan pulling air for both the condensor and the radiator, I am thinking of adding a second fan on the condensor to push more air through it.

[Bubs daddy]

This is the fourth summer I'm driving my Versa. We have about 60 100+ degree days per year, about 90 more days in the 90's. It's 105 today. I use the a/c nine months out of the year. Versa a/c blows plenty cold.

[versanewb]

If I knew how to post a picture, I would. Before you do it, run the car with the AC on. Open the hood and feel the suction line( the cold one). The 3 or 4 feet of line is absorbing heat from the engine compartment before the refrigerant even gets to the coil inside the car.

The suction line is just that, suction. It is the return line from the evaporator inside the car. There is no need to cover the exposed pipe since the gas traveling through that pipe has already gone though the cabin and is headed for the compressor. It may even be detrimental since the gas in the suction line is going to be immediately compressed and heated up when it goes through the compressor. If the temperature can be further reduced by going through the engine compartment, this may actually help the efficiency of the compressor when turning it back into a hot liquid.