A/C Evaporator replacement

[Walt43]

Anyone done this?

My mechanic has determined that my '96 Accord LX needs a new A/C evaporator. The car has 131k on it, and I don't want to pony up close to a grand for him to do it, so I want to try it myself. I have the service manual, but I want to see if anyone has any hints/warnings/suggestions before I tear the dash apart.

Also, would it be a good idea to replace the heater core since the dash will be ripped apart already? It's original.

[benjamming]

How did your mechanic come to the conclusion that the evaporator needs replacing?
How often has the coolant been changed?

[Walt43]

A/C system would not hold a charge, so he charged it up and used a 'sniffer' to detect where the leak was occurring.

The coolant was changed, according to records given to me from prev owner, about every 30k miles. Since there's 131k on the car, and I'd have the dashboard ripped apart already, I figure its easier to replace it now instead of waiting for it to fail in the future and take apart the whole dash again.