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If you’re taking everything apart anyway, replacing all the o-rings wouldn’t be a terrible idea. A kit of o-rings (and a bottle of AC oil, that I’m probably sure you’ll need anyway, so you can lube the orings) isn’t expensive and then you don’t have to worry about which oring is leaking/will leak soon.
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Jun 18, 2023 17:41
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Last summer my 2013 WRX was blowing warm air. The shop couldn't find a leak, but the system was very low, so they refilled it and added UV dye. About 10 months later, the car is only blowing cold on the passenger side, which leads me to believe I may have a faulty blend door actuator. There aren't any sounds that would indicate this, however (no clicking coming from the dash when I change the temperature up or down). The temperature on the driver's side will go up when I turn the heat on, but it won't go below ambient on the driver's side. Additionally, it seems to blow harder on the passenger side. The AC compressor is also louder than usual when I turn it on. It isn't super loud from a cold start, but after a minute it starts to make a loud grumbling sound that doesn't stop unless I turn off the AC. A friend of mine has a AC pressure gauge. At 65F ambient, the pressures read at about 60psi when the system was off. When I turned it in, the low side went down to 30 and the high side went up to 150, which I think is normal? Any idea what the issue may be before I gave up and take it back to the shop?
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Jun 21, 2023 06:01
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I don't know if the pressures are normal but on the E39 with dual zone climate, only one side blowing cold is a symtom on it being low on gas. Might be the same on your car. Edit: Went to some A/C people and sure enough there was a small leak when pressure testing. It was too small for them to easily locate, and they gave me the option of putting in the leak tracing fluid and fill up the gas or start disassembling stuff to find it. I chose option number one since I didn't have time to wait around for hours and I wanted to see if the compressor and AUX fan works. Thankfully everything works, so no need to start buying new stuff. I figure that as long as it lasts this summer and fall, and if it stops working I'll hopefully be able to see where the leak is coming from. It's insane how much a working A/C that blows ice cold air improves life. MrOnBicycle fucked around with this message at 09:08 on Jun 26, 2023 |
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Jun 21, 2023 16:13
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IOwnCalculus posted:Got the sniffer today and gave it a test. It works, but I'm not entirely certain how to interpret the results. Oh hey guess who has a Jeep with poor A/C performance again almost exactly two years later. Ordered a set of service valves and caps, gonna swap them and give it a vac and fill.
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Jul 13, 2023 04:40
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Had a minor freakout yesterday. Been a solid year since I've touched AC. Then I remembered "hey idiot, you haven't even started the car yet, and it's been sitting long enough for everything to equalize"   SO's car was definitely low - showing 40 PSI low, 120 high, when it was >100 degrees in the shade. Got it up to 45/225, which is still low given the outside temp, but I only had about half a can of refrigerant on hand - and my hoses seem to be leaking a little. At least it's blowing actual cold air now, instead of "less than the surface of the sun, but not comfortable". Any of you guys used ZeroR? It's supposed to be a drop in replacement for 134, though I'm not sure if you can play chemist/mix them (probably not). It seems to be cheaper than 134 at this point, and seeing as I had to top the car off twice last summer, there's definitely a leak somewhere. Also a good source for schrader caps would be nice; I picked up some generic ones from Advance last year, but they didn't fit. The high side schrader is definitely leaking slightly, and I've already tried tightening it; I think having a cap on it with an o-ring will help quite a bit. Obviously I'll be dumping some UV dye in soon and looking for leaks, and replacing the schraders whenever I do find the leak - just trying to limp it through the hottest part of summer for now. I want nothing to do with replacing half an AC system when it's 105 in the shade. randomidiot fucked around with this message at 12:51 on Jul 14, 2023 |
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Jul 14, 2023 12:47
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My son's '01 Accord is still leaking. Replaced the Schraders, but after a couple weeks it was blowing warm. I replaced the O-rings on the compressor today; there's leak detector in there, but no leaks have been detected. I'm guessing it may be the hoses; if I decide to do them will probably replace the condensor and receiver/drier as well. It's blowing about 42-degrees as of this evening, so it's clearly working fine. My wife's '13 Kia Soul is putting out maybe 60-degrees; it seems to be fully charged, and is holding it fine so I'm wondering if it's the condensor, or maybe the compressor's going. Will be checking the cabin air filter tomorrow; though that seems like a stretch to me. PainterofCrap fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Jul 15, 2023 |
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Jul 15, 2023 04:14
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Hey, I have a question about this exact gauge set! I read the OP, and checked the static pressure on my car. It's showing ~57psi low and high at 80 degrees ambient, which, awesome, they match! The part where I'm confused, there's the chart with target pressures, which says 80 degrees you should target 40-50 psi, and I initially think I'm over. The more I look at it, though, I think that chart in the OP is for dynamic pressure, right? Meaning, when I recharge, I try to hit those numbers. Also, how the heck do I read this gauge? My thinking was that the outmost blue numbers are temperatures for R-134a, and the PSI black numbers for static readings line up, which, so far so good, assuming I've read that right. It would mean ~86 PSI on R-134a at 80 degrees, I'm low, it's a candidate for recharge. BUT: Motronic posted:Let's say is 90 degrees, so we assume your car and the refrigerant is also 90 degrees: Brad Logan fucked around with this message at 18:47 on Aug 10, 2023 |
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Aug 10, 2023 18:25
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Brad Logan posted:Hey, I have a question about this exact gauge set! This chart:  is indeed live pressures that you are looking for. The point of static readings is to make sure the refrigerant isn't contaminated (higher than expected pressure), lower than expected (no liquid refrigerant in the system). You can use the temperature scales on your gauges to see if you're close (I'll address that in a minute) or go by pressure and a chart like this: https://www.igasusa.com/pt-charts/R134A-PT-Chart.pdf Brad Logan posted:Also, how the heck do I read this gauge? So you're correct that the outermost blue numbers are the temperature scale for R134a. It should match the temperature and pressure chart for R134 and just giving a couple spot checks like I know 90 degrees is about 105 PSI it sure looks accurate to me. I'm doing this using the product image from their web site just so I have a clear picture. You can check yours against the PDF temperature and pressure chart. But for what you're doing that's only useful/helpful for static readings since your live readings are going off of the high and low PSI (black numbers) on the blue and white chart above. The temperatures on that chart don't correspond to static pressures of R134a, they are just guidelines to get in in the ballpark of what high/low pressures look like in an automotice application at various ambient temperatures without having to measure, calculate and understand superheat and subcooling.
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Aug 10, 2023 18:51
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That hugely helps. Thank you so much, and I'm hopeful this might be an easy fix!
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Aug 10, 2023 19:03
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Oh hey, a dedicated A/C thread!  I've been trying to isolate an issue with my 99 Jeep XJ's AC for months if not years now. tl;dr - I think there's a leak somewhere but damned if I can find it. I am fairly convinced it's the evap core but I want to be absolutely sure before I start tearing it all up. So this spring/summer I tried to refill the system since it was low, just to get an idea of where I was. Got cold air, but it started blowing warm again after 1-2 weeks. Refilled the system with added UV dye, got a sniffer tool, checked everything I could for leaks. I didn't see any dye spots aside from a tiny bit around the bolts that join the lines to the compressor, but the sniffer didn't go off there. I cleaned that off and ran for another day and the dye didn't reappear there, so I think that was just a fluke from me being messy. The only place I haven't visually inspected yet is, of course, the evaporator core, which is behind the dashboard. I tried using the sniffer tool in the cabin and in the vents but I couldn't get a solid reading even with the sensitivity all the way up. It definitely reacts to r134a but it also seems to get set off by the air moving, so jamming it down the vent makes it go off regardless!  I caught water from the evap drain with a paper towel and checked that for dye... Nothing there. The sniffer didn't detect anything from the water either. However, there is a metal piece right below the drain that has a couple holes in it. After I ran the AC and drove around for a bit, the sniffer would trigger if I put it into that hollow metal space. I know r134a is heavier than air, so maybe there's a chance it was leaking out from the drain and collecting in that space? I don't know if there's a drain in the bottom of that space anywhere. Here's a pic of that area I'm talking about (not my Jeep, someone else's, it looks 99% identical). The red part is the metal piece. The purple shows two plastic plugs that are not in place on my XJ, so water and air can get in there. 
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Aug 10, 2023 20:52
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Sounds like you know exactly where the leak is and just need to bite the bullet, pull the cabin fan and get a black light and/or endoscope up in there to confirm that last 1% before you enter sucktown pulling your dash.
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Aug 10, 2023 21:08
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Motronic posted:Sounds like you know exactly where the leak is and just need to bite the bullet, pull the cabin fan and get a black light and/or endoscope up in there to confirm that last 1% before you enter sucktown pulling your dash. Ooh, I didn't even think about pulling out the cabin fan and checking that way, nice! I wouldn't mind getting an endoscope for my toolbox. Any recommendations on decent ones?
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Aug 10, 2023 22:48
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DizzyBum posted:I wouldn't mind getting an endoscope for my toolbox. Any recommendations on decent ones? This is the one I currently use: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07PBF6DX5/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 It's 100% because you plug it into a windows laptop, open the windows provided "camera" app and it just works. So many of these endoscopes require sketchy drivers and even sketchier phone apps that aren't even available on the app stores.
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Aug 10, 2023 22:50
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Motronic posted:This is the one I currently use: Perfect, thanks! Adding that to the shopping list. Reviews indicate it also works in Linux via VLC so I'm set there as well. 
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Aug 10, 2023 22:56
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DizzyBum posted:Perfect, thanks! Adding that to the shopping list. Yeah, I bet it will work on a phone too because it's obviously just "generic USB camera" which is what ALL of them should be.
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Aug 10, 2023 23:00
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It is now 2024. Have some carnage from a current 6.0 PSD F450 I'm working on.      Teflon/fragments found in discharge line. Compressor seized years ago. System is discharged. Pulley finally gave up the ghost. Sort Of Related. I brought home more Ford poo poo.  Pair of recovery/service machines. The Rotunda Ford unit is recovery only. The White Industries is full service. Estate sale so I got em for a song. "one working 20 years ago, one broken, nfi, take it all". Got both working. Three bottles to work with, one full of R12. Pile of adapters to complement the pile of adapters I already own. The vacuum pump in this one is newer. Needs a full service but it works.     Inside the Rotunda unit. All in one pump and wants Ester oil only. It's surprisingly quiet and smooth for ford equipment. It holds a bottle on the back with a scale that'll indicate to the user when the bottle is full. Filter and separator with discharge for oil. Pretty nice portable unit.  Gonna do a functional restoration and put these antiques to work on all the antique vehicles around here.
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Feb 11, 2024 23:49
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That looks a lot like my wife's compressor that seized last summer, and finally pushed me to buy a little Robinaire recovery machine and tank. I kinda wish I'd gone with one of the Mastercool machines, since they'll do oil separation and recovery, where the RG6 I got just pumps it all into the recovery cylinder, so I've got one cylinder that's basically good for Subarus, and anything else that might happen to use the same oil type. Nice score on the vintage machines, too! I've got an old R12 vehicle that I'm dreading having to do any AC work on, but I know enough other people with Freon-vintage vehicles that would make picking up a dedicated R12 machine worthwhile.
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Feb 13, 2024 02:49
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I may be making this up, but didn't we have a goon who can do mobile A/C repairs in the PA/NJ area? The A/C in my Vibe crapped out a couple years ago and I didn't care too much because it has mostly been a winter beater, but I'm using it for towing my bike and driving 2 hours home sweaty after a track day doesn't sound pleasant.
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Mar 2, 2024 17:55
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I don't remember anyone doing mobile repairs at all, but you might me confusing it with/remembering I'm in the pa/nj area (bucks county). What's wrong with it and/or what tools are you missing?
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Mar 2, 2024 21:21
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Nah I remember you're local (I'm in Montco) but pretty specifically remember someone else here within the past year offering mobile A/C work. It cooled fine up until a couple years ago when performance slowly degraded then it stopped entirely, so I'm assuming a leak somewhere.
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Mar 3, 2024 23:32
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I do, but I was in Massachusetts at the time and am now in Washington State. I may have mentioned being able to do it on one of my cross country drives.
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Mar 4, 2024 02:18
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| # ? Apr 27, 2024 14:33 |
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I'm willing to offer up the barn of unfinished projects and ac tools if you want to diag/order parts/come back and fix with advice and heckling from me. But I get it if you just need it done and that's not my thing.
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Mar 4, 2024 03:17
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