# Air Conditioning System Missing



## L-ski (Aug 4, 2013)

Hi all,

I just picked up a pretty clean 1986 300zx a few days ago with ~60,000 original miles on it. The only thing that I'm worried about is that it doesn't have a/c and I would really like to make it my daily driver. The climate controls are all there on the dash, but the previous owner told me that "back in the day" they shipped these cars over from Japan sans air conditioning components and installed them at the dealers in the U.S. to save money on import taxes or something... This one was not so lucky as to receive that treatment.

I've searched the interwebz with absolutely no luck finding anything that correlates to this story so my question is... Has anyone installed the entire air conditioning system after they bought one of these cars?

I found a service manual and have verified that most, if not all of the a/c components are not in my engine bay. Any insight on this topic would be appreciated. 

Cheers:banana:


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## i r teh noobz (Apr 26, 2007)

Never heard that. I'm going to assume a previous owner removed it to save weight or something.

As long as the evaporator core is there and undamaged, the rest of the parts are pretty simple to install. The evaporator hookups will be sticking out of the firewall near the heater core lines. Check out Z31performance.com and see if someone local to you is parting out a car to pull everything from.


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## L-ski (Aug 4, 2013)

That's the thing... I looked earlier and there are no unused lines sticking through the firewall. There are 2 "holes" in a vertical pattern that look like they should have lines sticking through them, but there is metal directly behind them on the passenger side of the firewall. Maybe I'm just overlooking something here.


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## i r teh noobz (Apr 26, 2007)

That sounds like a missing evaporator to me. You have to pull the dash to get in there.


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## L-ski (Aug 4, 2013)

I was actually messing around with it all night. It looks like the evaporator is still behind the dash panel, but all of the hose/tube routing has been pulled. There is duct tape in the firewall grommet holes. Definitely not a "factory" job lol. 

Just from my quick ebay browsing, its looking like it will be a little pricey to buy all of the a/c components. Maybe I can find a deal on a wrecked car or something.


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## AZ-ZBum (Nov 21, 2004)

Previous owner lied to you. EVERY Z31 shipped to the US had the AC installed at the factory. Your best option is to find a parts car and pull all the equipment from it.


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## smj999smj (Jan 1, 2006)

I worked for Nissan back in the mid and late 80's. While dealers did install some air conditioning systems, they were typically on trucks, Sentras and Stanzas. Their high-end cars, the Maxima and the 300ZX, were all factory equipped with A/C from the factory.


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## L-ski (Aug 4, 2013)

What a schemin' old man... His story seemed a bit far fetched, but I figured I'd give him the benefit of the doubt since I wasn't even alive when this car was produced. Thanks for all the feedback. I'm going to start calling some junkyards and watching ebay.


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## MarnieJacquemin (Aug 28, 2013)

loll! that would not make any type of impression on me as it looks a disgusting one for me to respond onto it


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