[saab tyro]

Took my '95 CSE in for its periodic aircon service which includes replacing the receiver/dryer. They phoned me to say that taking the dryer off would split the bottle as the nuts are seized on the studs and a new bottle costs £70, plus the dreaded!

Good of them to forewarn me but I've now got a problem. None of the independents (Euro; German/Swedish etc) seem to carry the bottle and £85 on top of the £200 service bill seems a step too far for what is only a precautionary measure anyway.

What's your (considerable) experience gentlemen? Do I pay up and try to look cheerful or do I nix the service (it's not included in the SAAB service-listing anyway) and keep my fingers crossed?

 

[Derek]

I don't see how seized nuts will split the bottle. Undoing them is more likely to sheer the studs, which is probably just as much of a problem.
With similarly seized nuts (especially on exhaust sections), I have removed them by cutting a slot down the nut as near to the stud as possible with a junior hacksaw. The cut should be made to just expose the tops of the threads. A cut-off disc on a Dremel is even better, particulary where there is no room to work the hacksaw. Once the cut is made the nut will come away with very little effort.
This is good trick when replacing an exhaust section where you have to avoid breaking the studs on the adjacent section. I don't see why it shouldn't work for removing the water bottle.

 

[saab tyro]

Derek - thanks for the suggestion. I had a look to see what scope there is for getting a hacksaw on the nuts; zero (without considerable dismantling/removal). Ditto re the Dremel option, I'm afraid.

A further snag is that the aircon people have obviously un-anchored the studs in their efforts to unscrew the nuts as the whole shooting match turns when you get a spanner on it, so, even if I could hacksaw the nuts off it would be impossible to replace them with new ones as there's no longer anything holding the studs firm to enable nuts to be screwed on to them. Replace or leave as is, that's the question.