Leaderboard

After two failures of brand-new AC Delco HR6 Compressors, I did some research and found that there is a known manufacturing defect, or "decision" as it might be put. For whatever reason, GM removed the dowel pin from the body of the compressor. Some speculate that it was done to make it easier to assemble at the factory. There is just one problem with this. When the unit is installed on the car, tightening the bolts without using shims to make the mounting surface fit perfectly flush with the compressor results in the compressor housing twisting and coming apart at the seams in the middle of the housing, and complete loss of refrigerant in short order. There are improved aftermarket versions of the compressor available that have dowel pins wisely reinstalled where they belong to keep the compressor body intact. Note that these compressors use PAG 46 rather than the PAG 150 of the original design. I hope this helps someone else who may be experiencing this problem, or prevents it from happening entirely.

I was able to purchase them at my local Lowes store. There is an assortment of them in drawers in the hardware section.