[FAQ] How-To: Charge your A/C air conditioner conditioning system at home

[INVALID]

Originally Posted by drumminforev I have updated with pictures. Cuz im crunk like that PM'ed

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[drumminforev]

I would like to mention that it is definitely easier to find someone that sells or rents an electronic leak detection tool, use it and return it. UV dye sucks pretty bad at finding small leaks, and its a waste of time to try to mess around adding it to your system, possibly contaminating it with moisture.

In the next week or two, I will have one for rent. I will post back then.

[RedEj8]

Yea R12 owns-----------the atmosphere. But good write up!

[EvilPinkEye]

good ish

[civic_speed99]

Great write up, thanks for the info.

[Dwight Schrute]

man... now i just have to get some r12

[br0nx finest]

I did the refill myself, and now I get a wicked idle drop at lights sporadically, and I hear the clutch grinding every now and then.

Plus I lose power more than usual with the a/c on, and regain it now and then.

Any ideas? I need to figure out an affordable specialist I can take it to because I need ice cold A/C, I love itttttt.

[KtHaNxBai]

great thread!

[drumminforev]

Originally Posted by br0nx finest

I did the refill myself, and now I get a wicked idle drop at lights sporadically, and I hear the clutch grinding every now and then.

Plus I lose power more than usual with the a/c on, and regain it now and then.

Any ideas? I need to figure out an affordable specialist I can take it to because I need ice cold A/C, I love itttttt.

Well thats pretty obvious. Thats clearly your compressor going bad. It could be possible that you need more r12 oil and its starting to grind when the freon flowing through has no oil mixed with it. Then when some oil/freon mix flows through it is stops grinding.

Thats my best guess.

[mv1luv]

good

[XkjeldorX]

i have been going to the autoparts stores and cant seem to find just refrigirant with oil in it. the ones i see have "stop leak" in it aswell. how many ounces of oil does the eg a/c system usually take? im just going to add freon and than oil. lmk i need to do this on monday. thanx

[XkjeldorX]

Originally Posted by XkjeldorX

i have been going to the autoparts stores and cant seem to find just refrigirant with oil in it. the ones i see have "stop leak" in it aswell. how many ounces of oil does the eg a/c system usually take? im just going to add freon and than oil. lmk i need to do this on monday. thanx

anyone? im searching and cant find nothing

[jdm b18c ek4]

great write up

[imadigitalgod]

Originally Posted by drumminforev

Now refrigerant is pressurizing the line. With your saftey gogles ON, press and hold the pressure relief button on the top of the yellow line. This allows refrigerant to fill the line. Hold this for about 10 seconds. This removed all AIR and MOISTURE from the yellow line and fill it with refrigerant. You do not want to add what you just spend an hour removing right back into the system.

do you mean the middle red line? the only yellow line in that picture is connected to the vacuum. the one connected to the bottle is a red one in the middle

Originally Posted by drumminforev

6. Drain your lines of refrigerant. It is illegal to vent into the atmosphere, so use your common sense.

could u explain how to do this...wouldnt u need to take the car to a place to have them hook their machine to it to drain all of the refridgerant properly? also when they do that does it drain the oil also?

Another question i had was, how can you tell when the system is properly charged? do the gauges tell u when its fully charged at a specified reading on them?

after reading that the pump might not turn on because of the low pressure, im thinking the problem on my car is low refridgerant because the compressor seems up shut off when the engine idle is low...but when that releases, the engine gets to higher RPMs and the pump kicks in again. it doesnt shut off at higher rpms, am i right? i have an apointment at honda and it iwll b about $100 to have them see what the problem is. is there a way to just see if hte system is low with a pressure gauage?

Also....

^^^^^^^^^^
Sweet hair

[drumminforev]

Originally Posted by imadigitalgod

do you mean the middle red line? the only yellow line in that picture is connected to the vacuum. the one connected to the bottle is a red one in the middle

could u explain how to do this...wouldnt u need to take the car to a place to have them hook their machine to it to drain all of the refridgerant properly? also when they do that does it drain the oil also?

Another question i had was, how can you tell when the system is properly charged? do the gauges tell u when its fully charged at a specified reading on them?

after reading that the pump might not turn on because of the low pressure, im thinking the problem on my car is low refridgerant because the compressor seems up shut off when the engine idle is low...but when that releases, the engine gets to higher RPMs and the pump kicks in again. it doesnt shut off at higher rpms, am i right? i have an apointment at honda and it iwll b about $100 to have them see what the problem is. is there a way to just see if hte system is low with a pressure gauage?

Also....

^^^^^^^^^^
Sweet hair

Thanks for the correction. I did mean the red line.

A shop would be the legal way to get refrigerant evacuated. When they evacuate it, the oil stays in the system because oil does not boil just by creating vaccuum.


The easiest way to check for low pressure is go to autozone and ask them for a refrigerant pressure checker. A lot of shops will do it for free or 10 bucks. But autozone is the easiest. If they make you buy it, you can return it right after, and its only like 10 bucks up front.

If your compressor turns on at high rpm then it could be a couple things. Check for pressure first. Does the compressor ever turn on at an idle if you leave it on for a long time? Or is it a cycle of on and off at idle.


Modified by drumminforev at 12:19 PM 7/1/2006

[nocturnaldragon]

What is the difference between R12 and R134a?

What is needed to convert from one to the other, aka r12 to the new shit, and if possible back to the old stuff?

[spoonracer84eg]

There are adapters that you put on to the ports so that you can service with r134. Thats about all I know. Im wondering if I can take my 93 that had r12 and just vacuum it out and put r134 oil in and service it with r134. So bump for this ?

How much oil are you suppose to add to the system? I had to replace my compressor and was not completely positive on how much oil was suppose to be added. There was NO oil in the new compressor, so when I put the new on one I added about 3-3.5 oz of pag 46 oil. Is that too much and why my car isnt blowing really cold air?

Even if its 70 degrees outside my car in general only blows air that is barely colder than the outside temp. It stays constant though whether Im on the highway or at idle, so I do not believe its my compressor. What else could it be? Just air in the lines? I had jiffy lube vac it out and add r134a in it. Hopefully they didnt funk it up. Any input would help a lot.


Also when you vaccum out the air and moisture, does it vaccum out the oil also?

[littlegreenb18]

i tried several parts stores, nobody rents out vacume pumps

[XkjeldorX]

Originally Posted by littlegreenb18

i tried several parts stores, nobody rents out vacume pumps

i have the same problem. im just going to go to a shop and have them vaccum the lines for me for 40 bucks. than ill just recharge it myself.

[XkjeldorX]

Originally Posted by 95GSRTT

How much oil are you suppose to add to the system? I had to replace my compressor and was not completely positive on how much oil was suppose to be added. There was NO oil in the new compressor, so when I put the new on one I added about 3-3.5 oz of pag 46 oil. Is that too much and why my car isnt blowing really cold air?

Even if its 70 degrees outside my car in general only blows air that is barely colder than the outside temp. It stays constant though whether Im on the highway or at idle, so I do not believe its my compressor. What else could it be? Just air in the lines? I had jiffy lube vac it out and add r134a in it. Hopefully they didnt funk it up. Any input would help a lot.


Also when you vaccum out the air and moisture, does it vaccum out the oil also?

bump on this! i need to know too. i might just put in like 4oz of the oil in my compressor

[imadigitalgod]

Originally Posted by drumminforev

If your compressor turns on at high rpm then it could be a couple things. Check for pressure first. Does the compressor ever turn on at an idle if you leave it on for a long time? Or is it a cycle of on and off at idle.


Modified by drumminforev at 12:19 PM 7/1/2006

i figured out the problem, the reason why the compressor was shutting off and turning back on at low rpms is that the car was idle, the high rpms were when the car was moving. i figured out that the A/C fan wasnt blowing because when i would start moving, the compressor would kick in again. so i tested everything and foundout that i forgot to ground the condenser fan motor when i took the ground cable bolt off of the chasis. easy enough fix thanks for the great writeup(even tho it wasnt directed to me) iv learned a lot

[drumminforev]

Originally Posted by littlegreenb18

i tried several parts stores, nobody rents out vacume pumps

Go to autozone. The main hub will rent them out. If they dont know what you are talking about, ask for someone who DOES know. AUTOZONE DOES RENT THEM.

Originally Posted by 95GSRTT

How much oil are you suppose to add to the system? I had to replace my compressor and was not completely positive on how much oil was suppose to be added. There was NO oil in the new compressor, so when I put the new on one I added about 3-3.5 oz of pag 46 oil. Is that too much and why my car isnt blowing really cold air?

Even if its 70 degrees outside my car in general only blows air that is barely colder than the outside temp. It stays constant though whether Im on the highway or at idle, so I do not believe its my compressor. What else could it be? Just air in the lines? I had jiffy lube vac it out and add r134a in it. Hopefully they didnt funk it up. Any input would help a lot.


Also when you vaccum out the air and moisture, does it vaccum out the oil also?

The entire ac system holds about 7-11 oz oil depending on your car. The compressor usually gets 3oz, drier gets 3oz, condensor 2.

If you are just evacuating and recharging, Its hard to say how much oil is in the line. It's actually impossible to know. But if you dont want to flush the system and start fresh, add 3oz and see how it runs. Add more if the compressor feels like its slugish.

Lastly, when you vacuum, the oil stays IN the system. The only way to loose oil is if it leaks out over time or by flushing the system.

[littlegreenb18]

I went to the st louis hub and even talked to the manager, he acted like i was crazy

awesome, thats what I needed to know. I know I had oil in the old compressor, and I put about the 3.5 oz in the new one. I doesnt feel sluggish at all, but for some reason it just doesnt get that cool. Hopefully it just needs to be done right. Thanks again!