AC Evaporator Gasket P/N?

[woolveren]

Hello, I am about to replace the heater core in my 98 A4 and am seeing lots of posts online where people suggesting doing the AC evaporator at the same time as its equally old and prone to go bad.

I can get the new AC evaporator online but none of them comes with the seal/ gasket as you can see in the link below from Europaparts.com

Looking at the Service manual, it says to replace the seal on the evaporator but I am not able to find a part number for it. Does anyone know the part number for this gasket? Or if anybody replaced the evaporator, do you know whether it’s necessary to replace this seal? I really want to replace this seal with a new one if am taking apart the whole dash and not regret later for reusing the seal..

https://www.europaparts.com/ac-evapo...d1820103g.html

[maxiz1]

My mechanic used one sided foam and flashing tape to install mine. No OEM stuff.

[walky_talky20]

The seal around the edge of the evaporator is just to help with cooling efficiency. If air can leak around the evaporator, it's not going through the fins, and thus not getting cooled/'evaporated' like it should. There is a similar sort of seal around the heater core. Just filling up the gap around the edge so the air has to pass through the core and can't bypass it.

The genuine OEM replacement evaporator comes with the seal already installed. See here:
https://www.ecstuning.com/Search/Sit...03_D/ES433334/

ETKA does not show the seal available separately. I looked pretty hard (but am not a real parts guy, so don't take my word for it). My suggestion would be for you to be prepared to remove the seal from your old evaporator and transfer it to your new one. Probably be ready with some good double sided tape to reattach it. Perhaps also have some alternative ready like adhesive foam tape from Home Depot Racing Supply or Lowes Motorsports - in case the original seal doesn't want to cooperate.

Probably more important - you have replacement o-rings for the actual refrigerant connection, right? And means to discharge and recharge the system, yeah?

[woolveren]

The genuine OEM replacement evaporator comes with the seal already installed. See here:
https://www.ecstuning.com/Search/Sit...03_D/ES433334/

ETKA does not show the seal available separately. I looked pretty hard (but am not a real parts guy, so don't take my word for it).

Probably more important - you have replacement o-rings for the actual refrigerant connection, right? And means to discharge and recharge the system, yeah?

Thanks for the explanation Walky.

It is disappointing that we need to buy the genuine evaporator for three times the price of an aftermarket one to get that gasket around it. Why Audi not selling the gasket separate

Now am thinking whether I should replace the evaporator in my car since the AC is working perfectly fine without any issues at the moment. Or should I be concerned as others suggested in posts to replace it at the same time when doing the heater core? I also remember reading somewhere that the evaporator can be replaced by just removing the center console and glove box, is it true? Any idea?

Yeah, I will get new O-rings but for discharge/ recharge I have to go to a local AC shop..

[walky_talky20]

I don't think I'd replace it. I've never heard of one going bad myself. BMW's yes, but not a B5.

I'm not sure about replacement in situ. Maybe.

[woolveren]

I don't think I'd replace it. I've never heard of one going bad myself. BMW's yes, but not a B5.

I think you are right, there were only few B5 A4's(mostly face-lift) that had issues with the evaporator compared to the huge number of threads online in relation to a bad heater core. I also see that B5 Passat's are more affected by evaporator problems but then the part numbers of Passat and A4 are different for the evaporator.

I'm not sure about replacement in situ. Maybe.

http://tech.bentleypublishers.com/th...ssageID=409011

Post #107

"The Evap can be done on any A4 without dash removal but if you are doing the heater core too then the dash will have to come out."

I saw it here and in couple of other places(but I didn't bookmark any of them), but there is no confirmation from anybody other than people just saying it can be done without dash removal