Hello everyone,
I drive an IS250 2007 with 130k miles on it.
I was driving on a 4 Hr long road trip and the a/c worked up until I stopped half way through my trip at a rest stop. I got back in my car and was driving through town when I realized that my car was awfully hot. So I checked and made sure the a/c was on and made sure them temp was set low. Everything looked good on my end but the car was still cranking out hot air....

I stopped, let my car cool down and that didn't seem to work. I thought maybe it was just being weird. So I continued my long road trip with no a/c in 101 degree temp and my poor cooling seats couldn't keep up. I was a mess!

Now that I'm back home I decided to tackle the problem by doing what I did with my Honda and that was getting one of those recharge kits (please don't tell me that those are so terrible. I've read controversial opinions on it and my dad suggest it so I decided to give it a try)

well to my mistake I got the a/c pro and attached the can to the cable and connected the other end to my low port (which is very narrow to get too, lucky for me I have small hands!) I should have used the cable and read the amount of freon that is in my AC but I didn't... And skipped that step and as soon I pulled the trigger with nozzle attached, the needle jumped to the red zone between 180-200. I quickly removed it and put the cap back on and now I'm upset with myself because I don't know if skipping that first step would have made a difference in my reading. Did I really get an accurate reading of 180-200..?

Also I sat in my car and had my neighbor listen to my engine with the hood up to see if he could hear the compressor click on when I press the button and he didn't hear anything and neither could I.

What are things I should check before going to the shop?

I really hate that I have to pay a diagnosis fee of $100 when I am almost sure it's the air compressor given the series of events.

Please let me know your input and advice.

Thank you.

 

I just bought an AC Pro for my brother to use. I'll make sure he didn't skip any steps lol.

From what I understand, the reading is affected by the temperature. So if it's hot, the reading might not be as high as it indicates. Couldn't you connect the AC Pro back and read the level again?

 

Yah I could but the can is connected and I do not want to overfill it. I really don't know how it works but when I plug it in and feel the clicking sound, it didn't do anything on the gauge until I shook the can and pulled the trigger.