kitlz

Well, again, this is not for your standard DIYer. As someone whose father teaches freon recovery to engineers and a brother who is an HVAC chief engineer, I would not suggest trying to work with this stuff. Read the safety sections in your wikipedia links above. A/C techs are trained to follow EPA-mandated handling procedures and have the proper equipment.

Spending the money up front to diagnose the problem may save hundreds down the road when the compressor fails which happened on my RX300. The extended warranty saved me the repair cost of $600-700, and that was for a remanufactured compressor.

phlfly

Proper equipment? A gauge! That's it. The gauge on bottle will tell you what is low pressure psi should be in system at certain temp. All technical is easy. Why do you think it's not required BS or MS to be auto technician. You need an associate degree.

kitlz

Fine, do what you want. Have that cheap can of freon explode in your face when that gauge or valve you think is adequate fails.

Degree or not, all auto techs have to be certified to work A/C systems.

http://www.epa.gov/ozone/title6/609/.../609certs.html

Yes, it's technical but a hell of a lot more than you think. Go ahead, take the test to find out how much you think you know.

phlfly

And I will before spend $500 for nothing like b's reading faults. I had Nissan Maxima, so this car had problem with the aircon. it would kick on then after 30 sec kicked off, so I went like three places for this problem , all these guys told me pressure is good and blah blah..... compressor is bad. So I have started to read about, then took same bottle with the gauge, and I got too much pressure, meaning too much freon in the system, so I let it out a little step by step, since that it worked perfect. So all this certs techs are useless if you don't have a brain.

BTW, I'm always troubleshooting my self for any problem even with home appliances, by reading on internet, asking people or trusted techs, before I will take a car or call service for repair, if I would not be able do it myself. A life taught me never trust service people in America, a lot them just scammed money from you.
Yet, I was fixing airplanes for major airline for 6 years, so believe me I went from tech to engineer myself. I have seen a lot people don't have any skills even to replaced a tire. And remember it's airline business, just imagine in the auto business. I would never gave my car for service or repair just to the random guy, even it's a dealer. Like quick lube places. I did one time by my trusty stupidity, so never replaced filter on my BMW. I found it after 5,000 miles. The filter was completely looked like a sponge.
So it's your car and your money and it's fine with me.

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web...T|GRP2004A____

and this

http://shop.advanceautoparts.com/web...T|GRP2004A____

kiwi

Thats the problem, you have the knowledge on this topic of a caveman. the kit from walmart or wherever is not applicable to this situation (in my opinion it is never warranted)

Most shops will diagnos your A/C for under 100 bucks, you are better off taking you walmart money and getting it properly diagnosed.

hypervish

x2. Take it to a professional. It'll be less than $100 to diagnose the problem.

mowmow

I had similar problem happen to me, it turns out to be a punctured AC condenser and not it was not covered under warranty and it costs $1500 to get it fixed at stealership so check your AC condenser also.

visual

My other car had a A/C leak on it. I had to pump 1 freon can every year. The other year I brought a refrigerant can with sealer and it completely sealed and fixed the leak. This year the a/c still running without any need of new freon can. I fixed the a/c for $25. There is nothing wrong with buying a freon can from the store and pump it in. Some can come with the connector also. No need for other tool to pump the freon to the car.

phlfly

I think most people here are hooked up with dealer or working for them.

kiwi

its still not freon on your car, its R134a.

second, phylfy, you mentioned releasing some pressure till your car worked, guess what, engineer, thats illegal, r134a and freon are both ozone depleting, which is one of many reasons you need certification to work on an A/C system.

third, if you went to the right place the first time you probably would have had it fixed correctly. people harp on the dealer, but in most cases, they know where to look the quickest.

kitlz

Yup, the fine for illegal discharge can be in the neighborhood of $10K. The EPA takes this offense very seriously.

phlfly

Really?! Yes if it's other then HFC–134a.
"HFC–134a in particular has claimed a large share of the market for non-ozone-depleting substitutes in these applications."
So you are guys working for Lexus dealer, I meant stealership.
And I said before Freon is trade mark only.

redrocks

So, did gleighlady get the AC problem resolved?

mandyfig

Yeah, let us know!

DFWTxRx

I'd like to know as well. I put a little over one can in my wifes car and it was blowing ICE cold. It has only been a few days and I can tell that it already isn't as cold as it was so I definately have a pretty good leak somewhere. I put some 134a with dye in it so I will get out the blacklight and see where it is leaking. I read a post about the condensor having a recall issue and leaking prematurely so I will check that thoroughly. Our RX has 95k miles on it so no warranty will apply.