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93 AC Question/Problem

Greetings, just purchased a 93 Camry 4 cylinder with 184K miles on it from the original owner. I live in the Dallas, Texas area.

The AC works very good (most of the time). The original owner said freon (R12) has never been added to it.

The AC blows very cold (amazingly cold) but sometimes the cooling efficiency starts to decrease and only blows fairly cold air. I notice the decrease starts on the left vent in the center of the console first.

I looked at the glass on the ac receiver and it looks kind of foamy.

Could it be:

1) just needs more freon (luckiliy I still have 4 cans left from the early 90s) 2) or could the evaporator be freezing up with ice crystals? It seems like I dont' see as much moisture leak off after driving the car for a long period as I would expcet. Maybe the drain hose is clogged? 3) or something else?

Any help is very much appreciated.

Thanks, Les

Reply to
les
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The foam in the sight glass is a sign that the system is low on freon, this will start to happen on a very hot day as that when the system has the biggest load. Check it when its cool and see if it clears up, if it does, then its time to be careful if adding because it might not take that much. Make sure you are satisfied that you can see the difference between "clear liquid" and "clear because its empty.

rq

Reply to
QQQQ

Likely a sign of low freon. Sight glass is for ball park estimates, you have to use a pressure gauge to check low side pressure.

You may also want to periodically clean the evaporator drain (spiders can plug it up). So dunno about a frozen expansion valve. Anyone?

les wrote:

Reply to
johngdole

It is probably short of freon by 4-6 oz. The sight glass will appear foamy possibly or clear (ie. no freon) if the compressor is off. When it is engaged, it should be clear at 1500RPM. Toyota I believe states though that it can still appear foamy when the compessor is running at idle (600 RPM). Again as already stated, you want to check this at the highest ambient load you can get.

davemc

Reply to
davemac

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