97 Civic Ex. Compressor has been making racket and bogging down the engine for a long time. I replaced it with a reman compressor along with new dryer and evap. I put about 4 oz of pag oil in the new compressor. It was blowing cold prior to the new parts swap. Took it back up to my AC guy to charge it up. It is blowing cool but not cold as it should. When he had the gauges on it checking the pressures and revd the engine up, the head pressure shot up to the 450 range. Could that be a cause of too much pag oil in the system or an overcharge of Freon? Thanks in advance.

 

What exact weight of R134a was added to the system? 21.1 - 22.9 oz is the proper amount.

 

I'm not real sure. The guy that did it just used 2 small cans of 134. Not sure of the weight. He charged it with the little handheld system like you get at the parts store, which kinda surprised me.

 

Was this crappy job done at a shop? What did you pay him for this?

 

Yea it was a shop. I went up there first thing this morning and had him evacuate the system. Then went back up there after I got everything swapped and had him vacuum it (all of 2 minutes) and charge it. $40.00.

 

Don't return to that shop.

After 2 minutes on the vacuum, did the vacuum gauge read equal or more than 27mm of mercury? It's quite possible that he did not remove all of the air and moisture from the system.

And when recharging the system with refrigerant, minimally a manifold gauge set should be used to read the low and high side pressures. In addition, refrigerant is added by weight using a scale not by can.

 

I didn't pay close attention to the vacuum gauges. I didn't think it seemed like the correct process. So should I be able to go to a hopefully good shop and get them to evac, vacuum, and correctly charge the system and be good? Of course if there are not any other issues.

 

This^ is how I would recommend that you proceed.

A shop competent to do A/C work should have a recovery/recycling/recharge station like this:

 

Gotcha. Thanks for the info. Also, when I filled the new compressor with oil, I put it in the low side (big hole). I read many different methods, but went that way. Will that be ok?

 

Correct. Add and remove oil from the suction side.

 

Thanks

 

Dropped it off at Firestone this morning to do a system check then evac, vacuum, and charge. Guy just called me and said the compressor is kicking on and off and that it needs to be replaced. Sounds iffy also. I know the compressor was working fine the past few days.

 

Just picked the car up. Guy said when they hooked the gauges up, the pressures were bouncing up and down and the compressor was kicking on and off. He said the freon level was correct though. Said the compressor was no good.