When I finished recharging my ac with a gauge manifold set, I removed the Blue Low Side line first without any problems. Then when I removed the Red High Side line, refrigerant began shooting out. I then covered it with the High Side Cap to stop the refrigerant from coming out from the High Side.

I guess the Valve Stem for the High Side is faulty, but once I covered the High Side with the High Side Cap, the leak stops & no more refrigerant comes out. But if I remove the High Side Cap, refrigerant starts shooting out again. There's enough refrigerant in my system to blow cold ac. My question is should I replace the High Side Valve stem? My system holds a charge with the High Side Cap on, but leaks with the Cap off. What do you guys suggest?

 

It would help to know what model year your car is.

My 92 Civic has R-12 equipment retrofitted to R-134A. On my Civic, there are schrader valves at the high and low pressure ports. If you have a 4th or early 5th gen Civic you will need to either replace these schrader valves or pull on the stem to try to minimize the leak. I did this and they don't leak excessively with the metal caps on each port.

If you have an R-134A system, I'm not familiar with the valves in these ports so can offer no advice in that case.

 

Replace valve core on the high side, and how much refrigerant did you charge with? Did you use the system specified amount or did you just charge till it was full?

 

My car is a Civic which takes 19oz of refrigerant. I charged it with approximately 18oz or 1 & 1/2 12oz cans. I was very careful to put the right amount of refrigerant into my system. It was an empty system before, and I also put 3oz of PAG46 oil in each the compressor and drier. I was driving my car recently and the AC still blows cold, but every 5min the compressor squeaks. When the refrigerant was shooting out of the High Side, a lot of the PAG oil came out with it. I knew it was the PAG oil because I used the PAG oil refrigerant with UV Dye.

Now I'm guessing my compressor is out of oil, thus explains the squeaking every 5 mins with the AC on. This squeaking is a newly discovered problem. Aside from replacing the valve core, do you guys think by refilling the compressor and drier with new oil is going to stop the squeaking and save my compressor from breaking, or is my compressor already done for?

 

Did you vacuum the system prior to the refrigerant recharge? Is the A/C belt possibly loose, causing the squeaking?

 

I took the lines apart & flushed each one(I didn't flush the compressor or TXV), installed a new drier & condenser, and recharged. It's not the AC belt because once I begin to hear the squeak, I turn off the AC and the squeaking stops. So it has to be the compressor.

 

If you did not evacuate the system prior to recharging, then there is air in the system. This is bad.

 

O sorry I left that out. I did pull a vacuum for 40 minutes, and it held vacuum

 

Thanks for all the input guys. Tomorrow I will go to the shop to have the refrigerant removed, fix the High Side valve core, refill the compressor with PAG oil, and pull another vacuum, then recharge to see if that fixes the squeaking problem. I'll update on the outcome.

 

This does not rule out a slipping A/C belt.

 

This.

When you turned your A/C off, all you did was remove the load that could have been causing the belt to slip in the first place.

 

What he said, The compressor is on a clutch so when you shut it off all load on the ac pulley is taken off. So it could very be a loose belt

 

Ok, so I had the Refrigerant removed and the High Side Valve core replaced by a shop. I went home and refilled the compressor with 3oz of PAG 46 oil, and I replaced a lubricated o-ring from the line I disconnected. I pulled a vacuum for 35min, and it held. Then I filled the system with 18oz of refrigerant. AC blows cold, but there is still some squeaking. The squeaking is not as severe as yesterday where it squeaks every 5 min. I noticed it would squeak at high rpm revs, such as 4-5 RPM, or at speeds of 70+ MPH . Could it be that the ac belt is too loose or too tight? Or do you guys think my compressor is giving out?

 

Try tightening the belt. Is the belt old and glazed?

Isn't the R134a capacity 21.1-22.9 oz?

 

tighten A/C belt! Fix the shcrader valve before the EPA finds out! LOL!

 

The AC belt is brand new. I will tighten the belt tomorrow to see if it stops the squeak. My Honda recommends 17.6oz minimum and 19.4oz maximum of R134a refrigerant.

 

Some retro-fit kits use a push-pin to contact the existing valve pin and they are adjustable so they contact it correctly but not push on it so it leaks, you may have this problem and need to unscrew the push pin on the retro kit a little. The best kits have their own valve and you remove the old r12 valve core. Usually the plastic caps won't seal 100% so it will still leak out eventually as the high side can reach 300+ psi sometimes.
Get a new retro kit as described above that incorporates its own valve core and not a pusher.

 

Turns out the AC belt was loose. I tightened it back up, and took the car for a test drive with the AC on. There was not a single squeak. Everyone was very helpful. Thanks a lot guys.