Tips on charging up my AC goooood

[91coMANche]

So my trucks got the standard R12 requirement. I can get R12 substitute much cheaper and easier. So any tips on charging her up? At the moment no cold air but I feel the compressor come on when driving.

[jeepsouth]

I have the same problem :fs1:

[Automan2164]

Yep. Make sure it has no obvious problems, and take it somewhere.

 

The cans at the parts store are bad ideas... Since you have no way to draw a vacuum to rid the system of unwanted air and moisture, you are just making things worse. Especially if you put in the cans with the stop leak. They are horrible for the compressor, and most places won't even evac your system if you've used the stuff, as the stop leak additive can ruin their vacuum pump on their AC machine. Air/moisture are the biggest killers of the AC system.

 

Best thing to do is to make sure that visually all of your components are properly working, and that all the lines look good. Take it in to someone who can draw it down into a vacuum, remove the moisture and check for leaks, then charge it with the proper amount of AC and oil. Its not as expensive as you would think if all you need is a suck-down, leak test and recharge. R-134 is cheap, all you are really paying for is the machine they use. Ours at the shop is all automatic, I just set it and walk away. It draws the crap out, pulls it into a vacuum to boil the moisture out, then holds the vac and waits to see if it leaks, if it passes, it charges it with the proper amount of dye and oil.

 

In reality, you have to be EPA certified to even take the cap off the service port (because that's technically opening the system if the Schroeder is leaking). If they wanted to nit-pick you, its a $32,500 fine for each time you could have released any sort of refrigerant into the air. I've ran into a local shop who got busted for not following the proper procedure and the EPA went through their records checking for any AC parts replaced. They counted up each time they replaced an AC part (A LOT over time) and charged them the $32,500 fine for each part. Bankrupted the business. Granted, the guy was a piece of work anyway, but none the less, that's a lot of money.

 

Rob