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Is your can one of the new self-sealing ones? I've been using my old taps with those, but it's a bit counterintuitive because 100% closed/open is functionally the same, because the can seals itself with the valve all open. Halfway between open/closed gets the flow through the gauges to fill the system. And yes, 80psi on the low side is.... Concerning. How hot was it when you were charging? I've seen more than 40-50psi even when filling from empty after a compressor replacement, but I try not to work when it's 100°+F outside. The short gif is kind of hard to understand, but seeing low rose/high fall when the compressor cycles off is expected. Last vehicle I did the compressor shirt-cycles a lot during fillup, but it was a nearly empty system to start (bad high side valve, replaced with some pressure left in the system) so getting enough volume to keep the low pressure cutoff from hitting took a while.
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Oct 3, 2021 19:23
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 10:02 |
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Yes, self-sealing means you should be able to open the tap all the way, and then remove from the can. You seem not entirely comfortable around refrigerant, so I'm hesitant to tell you just to do it. Leaving the tap on and closed is a perfectly safe option  And checking my chart, r134a at 70°F should be at 85psi, so I feel like that's not abnormal. Normally you should see the compressor running, and the low side pressure will be under ambient P/T point. With the compressor not running, and the can tap open, you'd likely see the system equalize at the ambient pressure/temperature. Refer to the OP for running pressures and temperatures, that's generally what I do when I'm charging systems by hand.
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Oct 3, 2021 22:57
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I've personally not had an issue with the puncture-style taps on the new self sealing cans, but I might do AC work 3-4 times a summer. I might pick up a couple new style taps before next year, but I normally had taps on two cans at any given time to keep charges going faster. And sorry if I assumed you weren't comfortable working with refrigerant. I help a lot of local car people with things, and it's hard to judge sometimes if they really understand what they're doing, or if they know just enough to be dangerous.
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Oct 4, 2021 02:46
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Yeah, my last car took almost an hour to refill (newer Ford Explorer with the aforementioned bad high side valve). I really should replace the taps next time I need to diagnose and refill a system.
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Oct 5, 2021 15:25
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Yeah, the times I've used dye to diagnose a leak, it hasn't been a bright neon yellow "leak here!", but more of a slightly UV dyed greasy streak in the general area of the leak. Of course one time it was basically the whole passenger side of the condenser, but that was a fluke I'm sure.
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Jun 21, 2022 00:14
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So my wife's AC compressor in her car is seized hard. It seems to have been working fine with no odd noises or anything up until Thursday this past week, when she called me to tell me her car was smoking, and smelled like burning. After getting over the momentary panic and checking it out at home, the smoke/burning was the AC clutch cooking itself. The history: 3 years ago we replaced the AC compressor/condensor/high and low lines due to a leak in the compressor shaft seal. Everything looked clean at removal, and the system was empty of any appreciable amount of refrigerant (~5psi on the manifold gauges high/low), so I just R&R'd everything myself, put the proper amount of oil in, and then recharged based on weight. Everything was great up until Thursday. I'll be doing a recovery/system replacement/recharge again. Are there any special concerns I should have regarding the recovery/recharge? The recovery machine has a replaceable dryer/filter that goes on the inlet side, but is that the only thing I need if I intend to recharge with the recovered refrigerant, plus any makeup charge from a still-sealed can or two of 134a? I am assuming that filter is sufficient to catch any debris that might be in the system currently from the seized compressor, but I don't want to reuse the refrigerant if it would be better to just recharge with new. Sorry if these seem like basic questions. I understand the principle of automotive AC enough to be able to vac and recharge with a pump and gauges, but this will be the first time I've actually HAD to recover refrigerant from a system, much less one that's failed in this fashion. Up to this point I've avoided having to do major work on a system that still had a charge in it, other than swapping the occasional leaking schrader valve core (with the appropriate no-loss swap tool/chamber).
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May 13, 2023 23:13
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Motronic posted:So the compressor is bad or the clutch is bad? This makes a huge difference. The compressor is 100% toast. I can't spin the center section of the clutch at all, where my car with the same compressor spins freely. I'm already planning on replacing everything except any body-mounted hard lines, and those will be flushed thoroughly. My question is mostly whether the recovered refrigerant is suitable to be reused at the end, or if I should charge with fresh and figure out what to do with the recovered. I can't imagine that the recovered refrigerant is contaminated with debris past the inline filter on the suction hose, or it would contaminate the machine as well for any future use. The only guidance Robinair has is that recovering a burned system recommends a pair of acid filters as well, but I'm not sure what the best path to determining that is. Short of just assuming worst case and recovering through the acid filter/dryer filter and then proceeding as usual. Much as I find car work relaxing, I'd rather not repeat this process again anytime soon. I already have two other cars that are 20/30 years old and still on their original compressors, so that's why I'm sucking it up and buying the equipment to do this properly.
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May 15, 2023 00:54
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I'm perfectly fine doing that. What do I do with the recovered refrigerant? Eventually I'd need to use that tank again, I'm assuming there is someplace that will vacuum it out and dispose/reclaim it for a fee?
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May 16, 2023 00:39
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I'll have to make that a thing to investigate, then. I'd rather not treat a recovery tank as a disposable item. Looks like I know what I'll be doing next weekend now! Possibly with the postmortem of a dead compressor if I'm feeling up to it.
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May 16, 2023 03:08
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| # ¿ May 9, 2024 10:02 |
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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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