A/C Gas refill with stop leak/dye?

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My duramax a/c is not blowing cold air,
Hx - I replaced the batteries
I tried rebooting the hvac system and I can hear the clutch click, so I am guessing it is low on gas.

I want to add some gas with stop leak and dye, any suggestions pls?

it is 100F outside, the tribe is not happy right now with me
 
Originally Posted by stockrex
My duramax a/c is not blowing cold air,
Hx - I replaced the batteries
I tried rebooting the hvac system and I can hear the clutch click, so I am guessing it is low on gas.

I want to add some gas with stop leak and dye, any suggestions pls?

it is 100F outside, the tribe is not happy right now with me


what is the air temperature of air blowing out of vents when a/c is running?

it can be as high as 70F and that would not be out of the norm for a 100F day. its only supposed to be colder than ambient by 20F to be considered 'working'

dont add any freon if you can help it, you could overfill system and make it worse.

get a set of the manifold guages if you are going be messing with system much, they will make it so you dont have to guess about so much.

avoid freon with stop-leak mixed in, that will harm the equipment pros use to service a/c systems.
 
Don't blindly add refrigerant. A decent set of dial gauges isn't that expensive at HF and it will tell you the inside story of your system.

Whatever you do, add virgin R-134a ONLY. Nothing else. They do sell R-134a with UV dye added which is OK and there are DIY cans of dye. But DO NOT, under any circumstance use any "all-in-one" refrigerant like AC Pro or anything with a sealer or conditioner in it, it might damage your system and it will destroy recovery/recharge machinery used by the pros. If the car is going to the junkyard, sure.

Something like this - https://www.amazon.com/Chemours-R134a-Refrigerant-Detector-ounce/dp/B00YQ3Z8TK or this - http://rechargeac.com/products/leak-detection-and-sealers/UVD-1?lid=471 can work to add dye.
 
Originally Posted by The_Nuke
what is the air temperature of air blowing out of vents when a/c is running?
it can be as high as 70F and that would not be out of the norm for a 100F day. its only supposed to be colder than ambient by 20F to be considered 'working'
dont add any freon if you can help it, you could overfill system and make it worse.
get a set of the manifold guages if you are going be messing with system much, they will make it so you dont have to guess about so much.
avoid freon with stop-leak mixed in, that will harm the equipment pros use to service a/c systems.
+2
1. Stop guessing. Put gauges on it.
2. If it is low on freon, charge it with 134a ONLY. Use a leak detector FIRST to determine if you have a large leak. If you don't find anything THEN put some UV dye in the system to determine if/where you have a small leak using a strong UV light. If the leak is really small you may have to wait a few weeks before you see any results.
3. NEVER put stop leak in it! Many A/C repair shops can test for it's presence and won't touch the vehicle if they determine that stop leak is in the system.
 
1. Dye Only
2. 134a Only

Got it,

Here is what I found
1. I cycled through the vents and it worked,
2. Then I reset the HVAC by pulling 10A HVAC fuse and it did reset the HVAC, it lost my last setting.
3. I turned on the a/c and I could feel/hear the clutch clicking on the compressor
4. I felt the skinny metal hose on the pass side right near the firewall and it was cold
5. I felt the bigger metal hose right close to the compressor, wow, that sucker was hot, I was a little shocked.

I am driving to drop off some clothes to salvation army, I will cycle the mix door by changing temps.

I have pressure gauges that with a refill kit, I will use that to check pressure first before adding anything
 
Keep in mind that if you want me to properly charge it after you messed with it that im a week behind right now
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted by atikovi
No places near you advertising $59.95 a/c service?

hmm, I have to look, but I found my pressure guage It will stop raining later today I will take a stab at it.
 
Originally Posted by Chris142
Keep in mind that if you want me to properly charge it after you messed with it that im a week behind right now
smile.gif



ok, I might not make the drive to socal with no a/c :)

I cycled the temps and it does blow really hot when I put it to all the hot at 90 F.
Then I backed down to 60F and the air was a little cooler than outside air.

I will take temps of the hoses today with my laser temp gun,
 
Originally Posted by stockrex
Originally Posted by Chris142
Keep in mind that if you want me to properly charge it after you messed with it that im a week behind right now
smile.gif



ok, I might not make the drive to socal with no a/c :)

I cycled the temps and it does blow really hot when I put it to all the hot at 90 F.
Then I backed down to 60F and the air was a little cooler than outside air.

I will take temps of the hoses today with my laser temp gun,



Grab one of those $3 meat thermometers like you would find in the BBQ isle of the local grocery store. It's got the long metal end to stab into some slab of beef, and it's got a round thermometer face on the other end to make it easy to read the temp of whatever the probe is inside.

Jam one of those into your dash vent with the A/C blowing full blast and on recirculate. Let it sit in there for a minute or so, until the needle stops moving basically, and that's the temp you will want to use in interpreting any PSI readings of the manifold gauges as well as just for general system health checkups.

As for the pressure readings, you will need both the high side psi and low side psi to truly be able to discern what might be going on with the freon charge. The little tube and gauges that come with the freon for sale in local Walmart or Autozone is for low side pressure only. That is only 50% of the input data you need to tell what is going on with the system.

NOTE: People have used the low side pressure readings as their only clue to what's happening in the system and acted accordingly, and some have even had success in fixing whatever the problem was. Many have failed in the same scenario though, so you should really get the gauges that provide both psi readings if you plan on touching the charge. Doing anything with only half the required input data is a gamble at the very least, and not one with great odds of winning I might add.
 
Just remember that after Jan 1 2018 all R134a cans now have that stupid build in valve, compliments of California!
Which means that your existing tools won't work with the new cans. You need a new can tap (and make sure the new tap works with the self sealing cans, sicne there is a lot of the older variety around still for sale) or an adapter.
The adapter to use your existing tools is made of plastic and of questionable quality.
 
Originally Posted by zzyzzx
Just remember that after Jan 1 2018 all R134a cans now have that stupid build in valve, compliments of California!
Which means that your existing tools won't work with the new cans. You need a new can tap (and make sure the new tap works with the self sealing cans, sicne there is a lot of the older variety around still for sale) or an adapter.
The adapter to use your existing tools is made of plastic and of questionable quality.

I think those style cans are ONLY sold in CA, not the rest of the country as far as I know.
 
Originally Posted by wag123
Originally Posted by The_Nuke
what is the air temperature of air blowing out of vents when a/c is running?
it can be as high as 70F and that would not be out of the norm for a 100F day. its only supposed to be colder than ambient by 20F to be considered 'working'
dont add any freon if you can help it, you could overfill system and make it worse.
get a set of the manifold guages if you are going be messing with system much, they will make it so you dont have to guess about so much.
avoid freon with stop-leak mixed in, that will harm the equipment pros use to service a/c systems.
+2
1. Stop guessing. Put gauges on it.
2. If it is low on freon, charge it with 134a ONLY. Use a leak detector FIRST to determine if you have a large leak. If you don't find anything THEN put some UV dye in the system to determine if/where you have a small leak using a strong UV light. If the leak is really small you may have to wait a few weeks before you see any results.
3. NEVER put stop leak in it! Many A/C repair shops can test for it's presence and won't touch the vehicle if they determine that stop leak is in the system.




Great posts ^^^^^^^

Exactly right...
 
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