Hello everyone,
My car is a 1990 Honda Accord LX, 4AT. My AC is not working. It was working last week but not cold but cool enough so I left it. I bought this car as 2nd hand about 2 years ago. It's still in excellent condition. I did the AC diagnostic tests using the pressure switch and found out that the problem is lack of freon pressure.
I would like to know where do I go from here? I doubt that the previous owner ever refill the freon. So this leaves with 2 possibilities:
1) The system is leaking, thus not enough pressure for the AC to run.
2) The car is 20 years old and freon is never refill thus pressure drops with time.

I think it's more of the 2nd possibility but the first must be rule out first. So my questions are:
1) With the system using the old R12 freon, how can I can refill it? Or is it better to convert to the R134 system? If so, is it better or even worth it? How could I convert to the R134 system?
2) If it's indeed a leak, how do I know or test the system to find where the leak is? What is the most likely cause of the leak?

Thanks,

 

put in a can of freon with uv dye.after you convert to r134

 

How can I convert to R134? Any instructions?
Thanks.

 

you can goto walmart and there is a kit that is like 30-50 it concist of some fittings and some o-rings very simple

 

one more thing mine was leaking from the high side valve core so i change out the valve core 20 bucks

ok and also are you cycleing the low and high side you need a paper clip and undo the electrical plug that is on the condencer and ground it out check your hanes manual if you got one but charging your a/c can be extreamly dangerous so be careful will cause death if not done right

 

Will they have the canister to collect the old R12? I think my car is low on freon pressure and not really empty. Thus R12 is poisonous to the atmosphere.
There's a guy who said he would fill it up and make it runs cold for $60, is this pretty good deal?

Thanks,

 

That sound sketchy to me. Most a/c shops charge $50 a pound for R-12, your car should take around 2 pounds. I know that that isn't what they pay for it but it can't be too far off. You need a license to do R-12, and you can't purchase it in any retail store. So I would be a little leary of those guys. Not to mention if it is a leak (which it probably is) is is illegal to recharge a leaking a/c system, as it is considered the same as directly discharging into the atmosphere, and when it leaks out then you will be right back where you are now.

 

Just pay a place to convert it to 134, then you can buy a kit from Walmart in the future to refill the freon.

It's 17 for the gauge thing that refills the freon and 8 bucks to buy the can of freon. You just use the gauge to check the pressure while running the ac on full blast. Then you screw on the can to the guage thing and install it again, then just shake it a bit and it'll refill in 10 minutes or so.

 

Thats exactly what I would do

 

I am not so worry about the conversion as much as if there's a leak. I just don't know how to approach it without getting rip off by the mechanics. Obviously I cannot do it myself thus a mechanic is needed. The mechanics know this too. So they will try to rip me off.
Here's what come to:
1) Test the pressure if any gas is remain. Since my AC was working a week ago, I would think if there's no leak then there's should be some pressure left but not high enough for the compressor to come on. But if there's no gas left at all then I would look for a leak.
2) If there's a leak, should I get the conversion done then check for leak after? Since you need some gas to test for leak.
3) If I am lucky, the gas is just low and needs refill. In this case, I'll get a conversion then refill with R134. But there's most likely a leak since the gas is suppose to be contained and not lost over time right?

If there's a leak, what is the most likely location or locations that it would occur? I follow the system pipes and don't notice any wetness that would indicate a leak. All dry as a bone.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

I finally got it to a mechanic and he suspected the compressor is leaking due to the wetness and dirt collected in the area. He wants $350 to replace the compressor with dryer. He will give one year warranty on the work only in that area excluding the leak in other hose area.
At first he wants $40 to pump die to find the leak. Plus $40 to convert to R134 system. But later he looked closer and find the leak might be at the compressor.

There's no gas left in the system but if I want to do this job myself, how involve is it? Since the gas is all gone, could I do this conversion myself?
I can find a used compressor with clutch and pulley on for about $70. I would probably have to draw all of the old oil out and put in new oil and recharge the R134.
I also want to replace any o-ring that might be leaking, is there any recommendation as to where I can see how many and which o-ring to replace?
I ready some where that the compressor could have 2 problem, external cause which means the clutch and pulley failure. I bypass the pressure switch and the compressor and fans go on so it's not the clutch. This leaves internal failure which is the internal of the compressor. With internal failure metal pieces might shoot out into the system so it's more involve to clean out. What do you guys suggest?

Thanks,

 

Well, as it turns out, one of the o-ring that was going into the compressor was leaking. So the mechanic changed out both and recharged my AC with R12 Freon and the total was $100. Good guy. He knew exactly what he was doing. Unlike the previous mechanic who said it was my compressor and wanted $350 for the fix.