After dealing with the pulley bearing issue the week of the previous post, I stopped by a shop 2 weeks ago to ask for a quote. They said they'd recharge the AC for $65 - and I went for it. I'm not sure it was the best choice of a shop.
After trying to explain what I did to the tech that handled my car (I'm not sure he was more familiar with AC compressors than I was, or he just didn't believe a word I said), he pushed some compressed air into the system from the low pressure valve. After not hearing any hissing, he hooked up the high and low pressure valves to a machine that vacuumed the system for 5 minutes. He waited 5 more minutes after that to make sure the vacuum reading on the gauge of his machine didn't move. He then proceeded to recharge the system; at this point, another tech started working on a strut/spring assemply and chased me away from inside the shop, so I lost access to the A/C recharge machine. I asked a number of times if oil was added and not just refrigerant, and I was assured it was added.
Two weeks have passed since, and it hasn't blown up yet. It's hard to compare to the previous state with 2 weeks of no A/C in between, but my subjective opinion is that the A/C is a little bit colder now.
Thanks for the replies!
After trying to explain what I did to the tech that handled my car (I'm not sure he was more familiar with AC compressors than I was, or he just didn't believe a word I said), he pushed some compressed air into the system from the low pressure valve. After not hearing any hissing, he hooked up the high and low pressure valves to a machine that vacuumed the system for 5 minutes. He waited 5 more minutes after that to make sure the vacuum reading on the gauge of his machine didn't move. He then proceeded to recharge the system; at this point, another tech started working on a strut/spring assemply and chased me away from inside the shop, so I lost access to the A/C recharge machine. I asked a number of times if oil was added and not just refrigerant, and I was assured it was added.
Two weeks have passed since, and it hasn't blown up yet. It's hard to compare to the previous state with 2 weeks of no A/C in between, but my subjective opinion is that the A/C is a little bit colder now.
Thanks for the replies!
