twice now car has had sudden loss of freon, before Christmas, AC was fine, after two weeks of not needing it, turned it on, nothing, absolutely no preasure in system. waited till it got warm again, sytem held vacume just fine, added dye and two cans of r12, after 1 week, the black light showed no leaks, and my sniffer did not detec anything at vents or water drain after car sat over night in garage. thats how i found evaporator leak 5 years ago. 2 weeks go bye, and last night
AC was working fine, this morning, no preasure in system, nothing with
the black light. Of coarse with these cars, can't see every inch of line or fitting. anybody had this symptom and figured it out. guess I will pull cover of the heater/AC box and look for signs of leakage in evaporator.
I wish I had the need for a/c!
I would think that if the evap was leaking that badly you would see the dye in the drain, or somewhere!
What about the compressor? Any leakage there? Maybe the high pressure valve is having issues. No schrader valves leaking? I can't believe all the pressure is leaving, thats very odd for it to hold it then lose it all.
Have you manually checked all the fittings. Maybe the one on the back of the compressor is loose and moving around a little, and when there is a temp change it loses its charge. However, again, it would seem almost obvious if it was leaking that suddenly.
Sounds like you know what you are doing, just thinking outloud I guess.
Chris
A/C? What's A/C? I'm with you Chris on wishing there was a need for it.
I third the need for A/C thing. It's 5 degrees here now. Suck.
But look on the bottom of your compressor. If there's oil covering it, it's your leak. I played the A/C game for a while when it was hot out, and I'd fill it, and it would leak out a few weeks later. I finally used some dye, and sure enough, the compressor was leaking. I replaced the compressor with a J/Y unit, and a month later...leak!
I wish they made a rebuild kit for the compressors. They are able to be serviced by the normal guy (with the right tools), and they are covered in the service manual. I'll probably take apart one of my extras and see about rebuilding it for when it gets hot out.
Jason
pulled the plastic cover from the air box, black light showed die in one corner, and on the evaporator tubing. This was first time i ever used dye, I didn't know how cheap the kits could be gotten, found one with dies for freon, oils, antifreeze, light, gogles, injection hose, cleaner for less than $60. Time to search the web for AC delco unit.
I figured i would get some static from you northern folk that still have
ice! what can i say, thems the breaks
A true story, many years ago, my 78 z28 camaro, pulled into garage, heard hissing sound from evaporator box (under hood), next day, flat empty of freon. I added a couple cans to get thru the week, (back when r12 was $1 a can), thing held that freon for 2 more years before i had to replace evaporator
They just don't make 'em like they used to...
We're kinda limited on what we can get here in WI for freon. Apparently, we can't buy R12 without a license, or R134. But I found some great stuff, it's cheap, and it includes dye. It's called Enviro-Safe. Check this out, and if you look around on the web, you can find it cheaper...
http://befreetech.com/envirosafe.htm
The stuff is supposed to be much easier on the compressor and other A/C components than R12 or R134. And best of all, ANYONE can buy it. Get yourself some Envirosafe, and buy the hose/conversion kit (like $20) and you're set! And it works great too, I put it in both of my cars (until they leak it out...both compressors leak :cry: ).
Jason
Yeah, there are lots of blends that work well. I use r414b right now, I was using r406a. I forget what they use but none of them are 134 or r12 inclusive. I tend to stay away from blends with r134 a in them. This stuff works really well, and one of the benefittitng factors is a "sliding effect" can't remember the exact term, but bascially it has a better latent heat of evaporation since the different coolants evaporate at different temps/pressures so there is a wider range of absorbtion and better heat capacity in the refrigerant.
Chris