So I just had a water pump and timing service done to my 1995 Ls400 with 220k miles. After picking up the car I noticed the compressor wasn't kicking on. Turns out one of the new techs drained the system when they moved the compressor out of the way and they forgot to refill it with freon when they gave it back to me. They refilled it for free - no problem right? That was two weeks ago and just today, I noticed a wine now coming from the compressor. When the a/c is off, no wine. When it is on, a perfect wine in sync with up and down revs. My questions are these:

1.Does my car take R12 and they put in R134a?
2.Could there be air in the system anywhere?
3.Do any of you gurus happen to magically know what it is?

Thanks for reading this post, much appreciated!

 

Our machines always gave a printout of how much freon and oil was replaced. It's possible there isn't enough. Call and see if they saved the printout. Ours were always stapled to a copy of the repair order and given to the customer.

Looks like the manual for the '95 calls for:
R134a - 30.00 oz
PAG 46 - 7.75 oz

 

Awesome, thanks for throwing that info at the bottom. If I'm hearing noise from the pump if they didn't put pag oil, could that mean the pump is essentially burnt up and it's on very limited time? Or could it be properly charged and be fine for a lot longer. Thanks!

 

New tech?? = learning on your vehicle.

First would not take it back to a shop that disconnected your A.C. compressor lines to do a timing belt job. You need to determine if they caused damage and to what extent.
Were you charged for this unnecessary work?

Second, ascertain what parts were used. (trust you received old parts) on timing belt service.
If non OEM parts were used, then demand replacement. There is some real crap aftermarket parts out there. Dealer parts insure durability and quiet operation.

Third, if skippy did not properly loosen and remove all three AC compressor bolts to allow removal of the fan bracket pulley, the rearmost mounting boss on A.C. compressor could be bent or cracked (two in front, one in rear) if skippy attempted to force fan bracket out before removing compressor.

Fourth; your A.C. clutch pulley bearing is probably tired or expired:
See:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...lutch-p-n.html

Fifth;
After you sort out the above, consider:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...or-pulley.html

As a follow-on to this:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...vibration.html

 

It's definitely possible that, if this is the issue, the proper amount of freon and oil could completely fix it and the compressor will last as long as the car. If you've been using the ac relatively often, there is a chance, though relatively small, you'd need a new compressor. If the compressor were brand new, I wouldn't worry but assuming it's the original compressor with 220k, it may be on its last leg. OEM compressors are fairly resilient though. This is why you need to find out what the shop used and how much. They may just happen to owe you a new compressor if you're willing to fight for one.

 

Another victim of a lousy tech. I hope the issues get resolved, good luck.

 

I think '93 was the last year for R-12, or maybe that was the first year for R-134a. So you definitely have R-134a. Not likely they put something else in there.

Agree with comments above that it is a bonehead move to open the AC system for this. Makes you wonder how they did it - just crack open a pressure port valve to allow the R-134a to vent, open the fitting at the compressor and let it spew R-134a and oil, or do a proper recovery. Did they carefully seal the openings while continuing with the TB job? Definitely a chance that they screwed something up since it is a mistake to begin with. Generally the oil will remain in the system, at least mostly, and just the refrigerant will come out.

Every AC system I've heard of has an interlock that will not allow the compressor to run (by engaging the AC clutch) if the refrigerant pressure is too low, as you'd have in an empty system.

If they screwed up the beginning part, in addition to maybe allowing contaminants to get into the opened system, maybe they did not do a full vacuum evacuation before re-charging. While it may seem obvious to any proper AC tech that even the air has to come out of the system before recharging, you don't know what they may have done.

So really, all bets are off since you don't know how badly they screwed this up. I'd try to make them fix it up like it was before.

 

Not sure allowing them to perform further work is the way to go.

Have a specialist survey and identify the problem.

 

Should the OP have the next Technician contact you for proper vetting?

 

Not necessary.

 

I have run into problems where I have drained freon from an older compressor and then refilled it, but the compressor was too weak and I actually ended up ruining the compressor. If it is original then after 25 years it has definitely lost its prime...