This hot weather is killin me..

I been at this ac problem for 2 weeks. I replaced both hardlines coming out of the firewall(both had busted ports).

I vacuumed the system myself, and it held strong at 29hg in vacuum for over an hour. So no leaks.

I turn the car on, crank the ac full blast and start putting in refrigerant. The rpms go up, ac fan kicks on. The psi shoots up to 45 and I had to cut it off because it would have kept on going. The gauge is on borderline ALERT. Why is this? Is it because the lowside lines are full and the compressor is not circulating the refrigerant?

The AC Compressor is not kicking on. I have checked to see if power is getting to the ac clutch and it is but it won't kick on. I even cleaned all the grounds and checked for frayed wiring on the compressor itself.

Is there a way I can "jump" the clutch directly to the battery to see if it actually works? I know that the ac system works off of pressure as well but I don't wanna tear my brain apart trying to find out all other possibilities if its simply the compressor.

Any ideas and help would be appreciated.

 

not sure why the press is at 45, but to get ur compressor to run u can jump the low side press switch. thatll get the compressor running but u may have other probs.

 

Well, that's where the "charged" section stops and the "alert" section starts so I stopped it there at 45 just to be safe.

Is there a way to jump start the compressor by running a wire from the battery to the power wire coming out of the compressor? I haven't tried it yet but I am wondering if it will work.

I just wanna see if the clutch will kick on or not. I don't wanna let it sit like that permanently.

 

I think your still low on freon. I had the psi passed 65 and then the compressor kicked on and the psi went down.

 

12V + to the single wire that runs to the compressor will engage the clutch. I temporarily bypassed the stock wire to check out my problem and I can manually kick it on. But I think my problem is the last link. Theres a thermo switch directly on top of the compressor that the wire go to 1st then to the clutch. In my case, I'm thinking because of my header, the compressor is getting too hot and not letting it work properly.

 

same problem here, subscribed.

 

Sounds like you have a restriction. Did you replace the receiver/dryer? H-valve working properly?

 

You can jump the low pressure cut off switch with a paper clip to see if the compressor kicks on. Or you can take a wire from the battery and touch it to the compressor wire and see if it clicks. (positive terminal). There should only be one wire going to the compressor.

 

Ok, another question.

When vacuuming out the system, do you do it with the car on and the ac system running? Or do you do it with the car shut off?

I know this may be common sense to some of you but I didn't find any instructions in my manuals telling me this. All I read was connect both low/highside vacuum lines, connect the vacuum pump(turn it on) and open both valves...once 29hg vacuum is reached let it continue to vacuum for at least 30 minutes. Then turn off the pump and see if the pressure holds.

Also note that I tried running a wire from the positive battery terminal to the wire coming off of the ac compressor(there's only 1 wire)and the compressor didn't kick on. When I bought the car the guy showed me that the compressor did work because he jumped it himself..but it's been so long ago that I don't remember how he did it.

I really wanna tackle this myself. I've already bought the equipment so it's a good opportunity for me to learn this stuff.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by beige89civic &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Sounds like you have a restriction. Did you replace the receiver/dryer? H-valve working properly?</TD></TR></TABLE>

No, the dryer hasn't been replaced. I was told to replace the dryer when replacing the ac compressor.

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the h valve?

 

Im telling you, you are low on the freon. You should go throw a can of oil(1) and about 3 cans on freon.

 

Gonna try that next. Partied really hard last night and my brother accidentally took my car keys thinkin they were his.

I am gonna throw at least 2 cans of freon in there. Talked to a local friend and he said that with 2 cans I won't blow anything up and that the pressure will drop once the compressor kicks on. So we will see

 

you are filling it up with the car running with the ac on? I had a freind try filling his up with the car off. I just had to ask.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by CRXWOLSKI &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">you are filling it up with the car running with the ac on? I had a freind try filling his up with the car off. I just had to ask.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Vacuumed with the car off(both hi and low sides)
Charged with the car on, ac on full blast.

Now note that I only put like 1/2 a can in there and stopped because I was freakin out that the pressure shot up above 45. Gonna try it again in a while. I noticed that there was a hissing coming from the low side port. The little bicycle tube valve was not holding a seal. Just replaced it.

Now I gotta vacuum again.

 

Ok, I think I made some progress.

I was able to jump the ac compressor.

I vacuumed the system again and charged the system with 2 cans of refrigerant.

The AC STARTED TO WORK!!! I nearly flipped! It was running fine. I turn off the car, go inside the house and tell the wifey "Baby, cmon! Let's go for a quick cruise! I has ac now!"

We get in the car, I turn on the ac and start drivin....its starting to get hot again...no cold air. My wife is looking at me like WTF!? I pull over and see that the compressor is not kicking on again.

So we drive onto Best Buy and just when we pull in to park the ac kicks on again. So as of now, the system working at random.

 

MORE FREON

 

Would air in the low side line cause it to do this as well?

When I vacuumed it I only let it sit for about 20 mins. When the ac compressor was on I checked the freon level and it read fully charged. I am so close!

 

if you vac it down there should be no air in the system. When filling up your ac you need to let the car run at least 10 mins with the air on. Then you can tell if the system is full. Also you can look at your full glass to see if its full too. Its on the drivers side next to the headlight. There should be a sight glass top that you can see if there is bubbles in the system. If you don't see anymore bubbles your system is full. Also don't forget the oil.

 

the cans I bought already have oil in them. I don't wanna overload it with oil. I'll check the glass like you said.

 

yes the cans do have oil in them but there isnt alot in them. your going to need more oil.

 

LEave the car off when charging. Are you using R12 to refill it?

 

Why leave the car off? you will be only chaging one side of the system. R-12 isn't that easy to get hold of. R-134a can be used on this system since he drained it.

 

a/c tech here. you should never add oil to the system unless it was removed some how. i.e. replacing a line, replacing drier, ect.ect. if you over oil it, you run into problems with cooling. when you lose refrigerant from the system the oil still stays in there, it wont come out.

you can charge the system with the car off or on. if you charge it while on you need to charge the low side only. if you charge it while it if off you can charge the high side. either way is fine. you want a low side pressure of about 30-40psi in 80-90 degree weather, 50psi in 100 degree weather. should be looking for a vent temp of 40-50 degrees.

when you are charging your system and the pressure shoots up to 45 psi, this is normal, when im charging systems those baby cans of refrigerant have 120psi or so, your a/c system can handle this no problem, just crack it open and let it go in.

edit: also if you have the system off the pressures should be equal to the outside temperature, this is a rule of thumb only.


Modified by QuickStyle at 6:02 PM 8/11/2008

 

This is great info. I plan on doing a full recap of everything so hopefully this can be of help to others later.

I have extra cans of freon, so I am gonna start over from square 1. I thought about replacing the dryer but I don't wanna go that route just yet. The ac works now, but it kicks on and off at random.

Because when I added freon last time I didn't vacuum it out before recharging the system. I am thinking there is air in the system right now.

Trial and error. So far I have spent 30 bux...so another 30 bux won't kill me if I need to buy more freon.

On a side note, NEVER rent out the gauges and vacuum pump from auto zone using a debit card. Long story short, I asked them to debit the deposit to my account(so I could get CASH back upon return)but the manager insisted I use the CREDIT option on my debit card to avoid dealing with cash. I rented the stuff out on Friday and brought it back the same day. Did I get my money back in my account the same day? NOPE! I was out $322 for the whole weekend. Credit to my account is pending tonight. So learn from me....USE CASH FOR DEPOSITS NOT DEBIT OR CREDIT.