Originally Posted by Jason Talley

I could see trace amounts of dye on the firewall near the drain plug. That was the only externally visible place. And the shop said that pretty much means its the evap, which at least made sense to me. Mine did not have dye from the factory however.

Originally Posted by digitaltrucker

How did your 13 ac perform?

Interesting that you say it (13) had no dye in it, both my 08 and 13 did. Did you buy it new?

Originally Posted by Jason Talley

Yup. My 13 was purchased new. Was your 8 and 13 new? Maybe its a regional thing? Is charging the AC part of dealer prep?

I'll only buy a 4x4 new now. My first 4x4 was used, and after eating thru a set of Nitto's, I went to have it aligned (at Firestone, my bad). They came back and told me I had a tie rod near death, a busted seal on the control arm, and said there having a hard time aligning it b/c the bolt on the LCA was bent.

They really didn't want me to leave w/o fixing the tie rod, so I gave them that one. I ordered a new upper control arm and when I went to put it on, the shock fell off. To quote Ron White, it fell the F*** off. It was cracked at the base, and when the control arm was lowered, the mount stayed in the control arm, and the strut hung from the upper. I think the original owner used it as a 4x4. That, or it was dropped in a move or something. I could tell where the was a fire and/or police sticker on the windshield, so I'm assuming it was well used.

Originally Posted by digitaltrucker

08 used, 13 new. No system comes charged from Ford when built.

Originally Posted by digitaltrucker

I would think a leak of any size would be detectable via the vents with the ac on low/recirc using a good sniffer.

Originally Posted by Upgraded2Ford

Doesn't come charged with what?

Not "any size". I've seen evaporators that leaked not set off a good electronic sniffer.

Originally Posted by Jason Talley

Interesting story there. I'm glad I decided to replace the heater core too, b/c when they put it all back together, I got a nice sweet smell, and some mist coming out of the vents. It seems the heater core started leaking. Fortunately, it was all covered under warranty, so I was only out some time. (Had I not replaced the heater core, all things considered, it probably would have leaked, and I'd be out another labor charge. $150 for the HC was a smart insurance move.)

But, you're right about the dash -- I had some new rattles that I couldn't track down. It felt like they were under the dash if that makes any sense. A few months later, I hit the remote start on my truck and heard an awful sound -- similar to the tensioner of death videos going around on the Gen1-eco's. I took that opportunity to not find out if there was an actual problem, and I traded it in for a 17 F150. Screw that noise. That truck didn't like me, and I wasn't going to give it another chance to F me.

Then, murphy kick me in the jewels. The new truck has a short in the instrument panel and ultimately had to be replaced. I had my truck for 7 days, then the dealer had it for nearly the rest of the month. I wasn't very fond of my service manager -- I told him what the most likely problem was, but since there wasn't a code, they couldn't do anything about it. He said the process for electrical issues like that was to call the Ford hotline, get instructions, perform instructions, call back with results, repeat ad-naseum. It was painful, and the guy was kind of an ***. Interesting tho, I think they took SOO long replacing the IPC due to the cost of the part. I never saw the invoice, but apparently the vehicle mileage is stored in the IPC, and not the ECU, b/c they had to special order an IPC w/ the mileage of my vehicle. That can't be cheap, and I'm sure that's why that was done as a last resort.

I like the truck now. But, the 17's AC doesn't seem to cool the cab quite as quickly in the Texas heat. It still gets cold, just takes longer.

FWIW, I never really thought there was much of a leak in the expansion valve. There was no bulk of dye anywhere. Maybe you could get lucky and put some leak sealant in and be good to go. If nothing else, knowing what I know now, I'd go get some refrigerant w/ dye, a black light, and do my own initial investigation.

Good luck.

Originally Posted by Jason Talley

Warranty from the shop that did the original evap replacement Not factory warranty. Interesting that another 13 is having issues however. I wonder if that was a known defect and/or bad batch.