so, ive been noticing that my ac has been turning off and on, and slowly starting to get closer together between cycles. what i mean is, its slowly been turning off and on faster and faster. started about 2 months ago and finally, its turning off after around a second and then turning back on.

needless to say, no cold air. the research ive done shows the clutch to be good, no belts are glazed or look busted up. i think ive narrowed it down to a bad seal somewhere. since money is an issue for 2 more weeks, i was going to recharge it and hope it lasts til then.

any thoughts? searching didnt yield much information... and oddly enough, my haynes doesnt even have the locations of the hot/cold side. which one should i use for a recharge and where is the bloody thing located?

car is a 94 850 sedan, non turbo

 

I bet it is low on freon.

 

I agree, low on freon. But why? well it's a 94 and compressor seals don't last for ever. I've used "super" seal and it worked very well for about a year or so but in the end I had to replace my compressor.

I bought a vacuum pump and a set of gauges for near what it would have cost to have the evac and recharge done (about $150), a rebuilt (no core charge compressor),and a dryer(don't do the job without replacing the dryer). Make sure you know what you're doing before you start. There is plenty of info on line, use it.

 

The port you'll use is located behind the passenger side head light, in a place where you'll loose a little skin off your knuckles when they touch the belt going around the power steering pump.

When it starts to get nice outside I end up going to the auto parts store to get a recharge, I know that I should find the leak but a shot of refrigerant in early May usually gets me to October.

 

and you would be correct

refilled her, shes blowin even colder than before!

 

also, i got some freon that has dye in it so i can trace the leak. compressor sounds fine now, its staying on for a while, then stays off for a while.

i know all about evacuating the freon and how to do it properly. ill probably fix it myself.

 

I will bet the evaperator is what is leaking.

 

ill find out monday. im taking it to my mechanic then and he's gonna put on his glasses and look for the UV dye

 

Hope it stays cold for a while. Last time mine did that the refill lasted about four days. A new evaporator and $1300 later it was working fine and has been ever since. That was three years ago.

 

wow. thats alot of money for an AC. considering i paid slightly more than that for my 850, id opt to just buy a new car if repairs ever got that high.

i checked FCPgroton for parts, it would cost me around 300$ in parts + labor to have my entire AC system replaced.

my mechanic wouldnt charge me more than 120$ for the labor since it would take him about 2 hours to remove and reinstall everything.

as far as how long it will last.. like i said, i had noticed it turning off and on and how it was starting to get closer between those intervals. ive had my 850 for around a year now, so if it lasted that long (no records on AC service in the paperwork, but there is a ton of history on the car.. going back 6 years and including a resealing on the engine 3 years ago), ive no worries itll last til next payday which is when i plan on fixing the leak, wherever it may be.

 

If he is doing the Evap and only charging you $120.00 I hope he knows what he is getting into. Book time is 10 hours to replace the evap.

 

My son in law is a mechanic that does things as quickly as I've ever seen anybody do things and it took almost all weekend to do the evaporator. You have to virtually remove the entire dash board to do it. The guy who did mine for $1300 said he would never do another one.