Oh Boy, what DID I do to my A/C?

[mtsmiths]

It's finally gotten HOT in Montana (our six weeks of summer). The Pretty One's 2000 was showing a laksidaisical A/C, so I got out the kit and checked. High green ... one can brought it up to mid-blue and it started putting out actual cold air.

 

So, the recharge kit is out, I've got a 'nother can of R134+ so I decide to check my '95. It's OK, nothing to freeze anything important off, but OK. I get a low blue reading (don't ask, I don't remember the lbs). While injecting a can it shows no increase, then shoots up to mid-yellow, no red. I twist off the t-handle and the car goes 'pooka-chuga-burp" drops from 1,500 RPM to a staggering 500, like there was a brake on the engine.

 

A/C off alls's well. A/C on, I get a three second surge cycle (about 500 RPM) and no cold air at less than 60 mph, then a little bit but not much.

 

What did I do?

Why did I do it at so low an indicated pressure?

What will it take to fix it?

[BigMattyD]

Last year when I mistakenly overcharged my system, I found that when I turned on the a/c, the compressor would cycle on and off rapidly, and not provide any cooling.

 

All I had to do was take a screwdriver and let a little r134a out of the low side fitting until the a/c operated normally again.

 

Matt

[RallyKeith]

Yeah, sounds like it's just overcharged and the system is recognizing it and not letting the compressor run. Try bleeding some off and see what happens.

 

FWIW I had a situation in my 95 where I let the car idle for 30 minutes with the AC on and me not in the car. I got in and it wasn't blowing cold air and the compressor wasn't running. After 10 minutes of highway driving the compressor kicked in and it worked fine, and has worked fine everyday since. The freon got overheated by not moving the car and the system recognized it and shut off. Once it got back to a reasonable temp it worked again.

 

Keith

[q240z]

Not trying to be an eco-nazi or anything, but 134A, while not as bad as R-12 in some respects, should be recovered, not just released to atmosphere.

 

Gotta go hug a tree now. Buh-bye.

[RallyKeith]

Not trying to be an eco-nazi or anything, but 134A, while not as bad as R-12 in some respects, should be recovered, not just released to atmosphere.

 

Gotta go hug a tree now. Buh-bye.

 

 

Yeah, I know. And that is one of the reasons why I spent $150 having a garage leak check, evacuate, and then eventually charge my system. I never said where to bleed the coolant off to.... but I will admit that I asmued in our realm of conversation here that mtsmiths has a gauge and cans of freon, and at this point would not be willing to pay anyone to work on it. Hmm, makes you wonder though... Would a garage charge you to recover freon from an overcharged system? In theory they are winning by have freon they didn't pay for that they will in turn charge someone for when they fill another car. Hmm...