As the summer approaches, the temps are up so my wife turned on her A/C over the weekend and it just blew hot air. Since this car was new, she's had to take it in to a Saturn dealer 4 times to address this issue. Each time they said they "fixed a leak and recharged it" and it works for the rest of the summer. I tried to charge it myself tonight with a "universal" hose and a can of
134a tonight and the quick-disconnect will not fit the LS. I measured and the ID of the female connector on the hose is 0.51" and the male connection on the car is 0.62". I measured the male connector on my Tundra and it's
0.51".
Has anyone else ever recharged their own A/C on an LS before? Is there a special adapter that I need?
Obviously they arent fixing the leak. Stop taking it to them. Makes me wonder what was leaking each time, how they fixed it, and if it was mentioned on your invoice. If you are missing the caps & the o-rings on you schrader valves I can tell you where a leak is right now.
These little cans of death should be illegal for anyone to purchase IMO. And they are if you dont have a 609 certification. If they contain "seal swellers" or "stop leak" you will be contaminating your ac system! BTW you were looking only at the "Highside port" on your LS. Since you didnt know this I would suggest not going any further because the risk is to great for the DIY'er IMO.
Here's my special adaptor:
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$2000+ dollars worth of other tools and equipment.
Lighten up or get a lighten up or get a life as he is asking for help not insults. You could have simply told him that his was trying to connect to the wrong fitting ang they are sized that way because even well seasons techs can make mistakes too sometimes and the keyed fitting sizes provents attachement to wrong port.
The guy at NAPA told me about the high side vs low side today. I charged it up, tightened all of the fittings and it works like new!
I used to work on a FLIR system on the A6E bomber in the Navy that used Helium to cool the detectors down to -450°F. I've never had to charge an A/C in a car in my 45 years until I bought a new Saturn. I've owned 20 year old cars that had ice cold A/C with no problems. I had a 92 SL before I bought this 2000 LS. I put 242,000 miles on the SL with no problems other that losing a quart of oil every 1000 miles. It had the original clutch, rear brake shoes and timing chains when I got the LS in
2000. I thought I'd get another reliable car. The LS has had tons of nickle and dime problems since it was brand new. I will never buy another Saturn or GM for that matter. Toyota seems to be the most reliable car for the money!!!
You are just EXTREMELY lucky then. It happens all the time with every make of car. It is a lot better now that it was 20 years ago, but leaks are not uncommon at all.
So long as you didnt use an additive can of 134 with seal sweller or=20 sealant in your system you should be fine for this season... Each time=20 you top off you will eventually introduce to much air into the mix and=20 who knows what the oil level would be.
I should have noticed when you used thousands to discribe the fitting=20 sizes that you werent the average DIY'er.=20
Where's the logic in that?=20 The L-Series, the 1st model year at that, hardly reflects other GM cars=20 and trucks considering it shared NOTHING with them. I've probably seen=20 EVERY make and model you can think of on the road with less than 3 years=20 use with A/C issues and yes that very much includes Toyotas. If you=20 actually live by the your above logic, eventually you wouldn't buy any=20 car on planet Earth...=20
I guess I have been lucky never having A/C problems until I bought my first new car.
My main complaint about Saturn isn't the car's nickle and dime problems, I suppose. It's the service at the dealer. They have been the worst at Merrilville, IN and Greenwood, IN. When the car was new, I took it into the Merrilville dealer under warranty because the headlamp switch was getting very warm. The service manager (some girl named Kelly, I think) tried to tell me that that was normal. I explained to her that I am an electrical engineer and switches don't get warm unless they're underrated or arcing. She then told me that it was because of where the switch was located on the dash. I told her the switch was on the turn signal and to please bring a service tech out to look at it. He came out and told me he'd change the switch. She actually tried to BS me out of a simple switch! I could go on and on.
The reason I like Toyota so much righ now is that I know so many people that drive them and swear up and down they're the best cars they've ever owned. All of them are repeat buyers. I took the plunge an bought a new Tundra last year and I have no complaints with the truck or with the people in the service dept. I noticed it didn't start immediately twice last winter, didn't think too much about it but called the dealer anyway. They said to bring it in, and they found a TSB problem and changed out the fuel pump (for an intermittant problem they never witnessed, with no questions asked)! I was pleased.
Good luck to everyone out there and thanks again for the help.
-Dave
So long as you didnt use an additive can of 134 with seal sweller or sealant in your system you should be fine for this season... Each time you top off you will eventually introduce to much air into the mix and who knows what the oil level would be.
I should have noticed when you used thousands to discribe the fitting sizes that you werent the average DIY'er.
Where's the logic in that? The L-Series, the 1st model year at that, hardly reflects other GM cars and trucks considering it shared NOTHING with them. I've probably seen EVERY make and model you can think of on the road with less than 3 years use with A/C issues and yes that very much includes Toyotas. If you actually live by the your above logic, eventually you wouldn't buy any car on planet Earth...
FWIW, I disagree with you, SnoMan. As a non-DIY-er, I would not have been insulted by this reply; in fact, I would appreciate the advice and the delivery of that advice.
I agree SnoMan, thanks for your comment, I WAS insulted. I am an intense DIYer, I do most everything myself. My wife has to take her car in from time to time when I'm out of town (and I hate that). I do all of my own home and auto repairs & upgrades. I'm restoring a 72 mach1 from the ground up. I just never had to mess with A/C recharging before I owned a NEW Saturn. Dave
Thanks Steve but I couldn't care less what Snoman says anymore. He very much likes to get into arguments and split hairs over nothing. Thus I blocked him some time back and no longer see his post unless someone includes his text in a reply. I guess no one knows what "IMO" means anymore. Next time I'll use IMHO as well as a link to acronymfinder.com so no ones panties get into a bunch.
If you felt this was insulting it wasnt my intent. I've seen far to many contaminated and further damaged AC systems as well as people having had vented refrigerant through blowing out seals or by other means into the ozone. Thus I will never spur on any DIY'er in a/c service.
BTW you're a hard person to pin down. You rely on dealerships to maintain your cars but yet you're a DIY'er? I wouldnt set foot in any dealership or new car lot if that was the case.
Like I said before, I travel a lot and my wife is not a DIYer. I won't let her ever go to another saturd dealer again! And BTW, I read the thread again and it wasn't insulting after all. I guess the way I read the part "..if you don't know that..." but you were referring to a safety issue, you weren't insulting my intelligence. I appreciate that. Can't we all get along? :)
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