Before I just bring this thing into an AC shop, are there any perennial problems with 4cyl accord ACs? It was ice cold when I bought it in June and for the first couple months, then started gradually getting less cold. Bought two cans of R134a and put them in, got better but not back to how it was at first. Now after two weeks it is bad again. So I'm leaking fluid somewhere, the question is where is the problem, and how much is it going to cost to get fixed?

 

It can get pretty expensive to find leaks.You might want to try a can of that A/C leak stop. I used it on my '87 Accord and it worked really good. It hasn't leaked since and the A/C stays nice and cold.

 

Do not use A/C leak stop. It may fix the problem but if the leak should ever open again it makes it ten time more difficult to diagnose.

A 99? How many miles? You still under warranty?

 

60k miles, bought it used, not under warranty.

I'll spend the money or time to fix it right rather than causing more trouble down the road.

 

On this new of a car I would probably get it fixed also.
How does the leak stop make it harder to diagnose. They use ultraviolet dyes under blacklights to see where the freon is leaking. Also they use a special "sniffer" tool that detects freon so they can tell where it is leaking from.

 

Sniffer's are used 19 times out of 20. That dye crap is a pain to work with. If you have a leak that's hard to find and you half clog with 'fix-it' it then you have just made the sniffer's job that much more difficult. I know from experience that when a customer would bring in a car they used 'fix-it' on it took at least an extra 30 minutes to find a leak. But there may be other factors - most people who use the fix-it have used it repeatedly for several years and come in expecting our shop to perform miracles for cheap.