air conditioning

== Chances are some refrigerant has leaked out. System needs to be re charged, and preferably fix leak to avoid recurrence. Could be a hose or fitting. Cost depends on source.

Nanb: Turn the a/c on with the hood up and see if the clutch engages to rotate the compressor. You will hear a solid "clunk" if it is working, and you will see that the whole clutch assembly is rotating.

If the clutch does not engage, probably your pressure is low because of a loss of Freon. You can force the compressor clutch to engage by hooking a

With the compressor rotating, look at the sight-gage on top of the dryer. It usually resides in front of the condenser (in front of the radiator). If the sight-gage shows a white-cloudy mixture then you are low on Freon. Your '92 uses R-12, and that is hard to find now that it is illegal to produce it. There are some substitutes for R-12, but none are the real thing. You might try to get some "Freeze-12," which I understand works reasonably well.

Assuming you can scrounge-up some refrigerant, you will need a manifold and gage set to fill the unit properly, but you can fudge it by filling until the sight-gage clears and then add just a tiny bit more.

Good Luck.

Dick

Hello Dick. I have a gauge to go with my new form of refrigerant (not R-12). It shows hi-side pressure can be anywhere from 25-45psi - which seems like a big range. Would pushing it to 45 risk a leak? Not sure how old the compressor/lines are, as the car (230M) had engine replaced 20 thousand ago - and not sure compressor/lines was included. Thanks for insight. Tim