Follow up....
The new condenser works...sort of.

It's blowing cold air and then after a few minutes the HVAC is powerless. Turning the car off and then on again does no good (I guess the 96 Avalon doesn't reboot like the 08 TCH does)
In any event, after the car sits for an extended period of time, the HVAC works properly.
It's cycled this way at least twice.
Sort of good and bad news. Good if you do a lot of short trips in the spring and fall. Bad for other times and trips.
Bringing car to garage to have them take a look.
Any ideas?

 

Larry,

Several things to look at. The system pressure switch will kill the compressor to allow it to thaw out if the pressure gets too high. The fan relay will turn on a second fan on the radiator. If the relay or the fan is bad, it will kick out the compressor. If the system is low on refrigerent, it will stop. If you are running the system on "auto" the interior temp sensor can also go bad.

Good luck.... One other thing, if they cracked the system open, I'm fairly certain your unit has an "orifice" that will need to be changed before they pump the system back down and add oil and refrigerent. I'm not positive about a Toyota system however....

 

Couple of possibilities:

• Crap floating in the system, plugging up the expansion valve. I would assume They replaced the receiver/dryer, which would have have helped. IAC, expansion valve is a 'wear item', especially at that age - and it could have contributed to the original failure.
• Evaporator icing up, blocking flow, and the system going over-pressure. This could be due to the compressor not cycling. Could also be to air flow/blockage issues, air mix door issues - follow the TSM diagnostic. Also, if the Avalon uses vacuum operated air blend doors, look at all the hoses and make sure none are leaking.

Diagnostic tree is fairly simple - put gauges on the system, observe operation. If it goes over-pressure, and the compressor is cycling, and evaporator isn't icing up, expansion valve is the likely suspect. If it's not cycling, figure out why. If it's cutting off below the pressure spec, replace the pressure sensor.

 

The compressor has already been replaced. Thanks for your advice.