Obvious freon blowout under hood but leak not detectable as oily freon is all over the hoses, compressor, hood, etc.
Other than fully evacuating and recharging the system including tracer dye to detect the leak, is there a better way to find the leak without spending $200?
Can one just put compressed air in the freon inlet and search for a leak?
I am sure it needs a part(s).
Could be hose or compressor seal?
I don't want to pay $200 to find the leak and still have to replace hose or compressor and recharge the freon for anothr $200 plus?
You might want to wipe off the hoses best you can..... then maybe buy a can of refrigerant and refill with just one can... then watch where it leaks out. You will probably see what you see now, but you will be able to catch it before it goes all over the place. chances are it is coming from an old o-ring that needs replacing, or one of the connectors need tightening...
Yes, working on this one. I was going to steam clean but likely not necessary. I can only see one fitting for freon. Is there more inlet/outlet fittings?
A cheap fix like would be best for my wallet. But I know there are other things it could be like the compressor seal, pop off valve, hose, or even clogged condenser.
There is a high side and a low side...... when you buy the refrigerant, you will need the hose too, and it only fits on the low side, so you can't screw things up. Just follow the directions.... its pretty easy to refill. This will work as a sort of temperary fix.... I did this myself to get me thru a summer. By the time the next summer rolled around, I started doing the same thing, but this time it ate cans like crazy. It actually got too expensive. I am not a tech on a/c service, and since I couldn't see where the leak was, I took it somewhere to be done. Turned out to be the condensing unit behind the dashboard. Its a bitch of a job as the whole dashboard had to come out to have it fixed. It cost me just over 900 bucks, but I wanted it done. In your case, it sounds like the leak is under the hood and probably an inexpensive fix if its coming from the hose fitting. Sounds like just an o-ring and a recharge.
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I understand your attempt to save some money by doing what you can. Here's how it goes. You spend maybe 30 bucks for a service port adapter, a can of
134a with a refill hose. You add the Freon through the low side port and instantly hear it hissing out of the busted hose or blown fitting seal. Good. Now you can replace the hose or whatever part is leaking yourself for whatever the parts cost. Because you saw all that oil under the hood, it is most likely a hose or fitting.. It might be the pop off valve on the compressor that released because the high side pressure got to hi. In that case you will not hear any leaks when you add Freon. You will then have to find out why the pressure got too high. There are several things that could cause this. Not enough air flow through the condenser (dirty fins, plastic garbage from the road, cooling fan inoperative) or even a restriction somewhere in the refrigerant system. For instance, the dryer desiccant bag can rupture and clog the expansion valve witch would block the flow of refrigerant. That would cause the high side pressure to increase above the pop off valve setting. Unfortunately you will probably not be able to diagnose this yourself. If you find a leaking component go ahead and replace it and the dryer (always replace the dryer) yourself. Then have a shop evacuated and recharge the system. At that time you can decide weather or not to convert to 134a. If you do, the only difference will be the type of refrigerant and oil the shop puts back in. If you decide to go back with r12, it will be expensive. Only a licensed tech can purchase r12 and it cost up to 200 dollars to refill a system with it. You can expect the shop to refuse any warranty on the job because you diagnosed and repaired the system yourself. They can't be responsible if something goes wrong, and plenty could go wrong. There isn't enough time or space here to go into all the details of complete A/C repairs. I spend about five weeks with my students getting them to understand all the intricacies of A/C work. If all goes well and you replace a busted hose, dryer, and service port adapters, then have a shop evacuate and recharge with 134a, you can expect to spend as much as a couple of hundred on the parts and another couple of hundred on the shops labor. Probably not much less than an honest shop would charge to diagnose and repair the same scenario, but then you would have a warranty. Of course most shops have a great tendency to overkill on A/C work so that they don't take any chances of having to eat a come back repair. Most likely, if you just bring it in to a shop and say "fix it" you will wind up with a 12 to 15 hundred dollar repair bill.
Propane is fine for testing an R12 system (runs OK too)... try googling *R290 refrigerant*.
You'll need to make up some sort of adaptor to get from a propane cylinder to the Schrader valve.
Propane has a somewhat higher vapour pressure than R12 and you can normally get enough charge into the system (without running the engine) to get the a/c to operate after a fashion. With the engine stopped, charge until you reach cylinder pressure (you won't need a gauge). Preferably through the low side but it won't matter much either way.
Right. But will anyone else be able to without fully charging the system?
Ok.
Yes. I have to discuss this option with whatever technician I wind up with.
Yup.
If that is all it is I can be happy. This chance get's remote when the dealer quotes 165$ for one hose though.
Yes.
That is why I am not too trusting. I've been working on my own cars for 35 years. I just never had to do any a/c work. I found an a/c tech that says he will leak test it for free. I then can determine what to do from there after I talk to him about these other possible issues..
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