My A/C has had a small steady leak for years that I never bothered looking into and just kept refilling every summer, but became visible when I went to do an oil change as refrigerant was leaking out of a bolt.

Upon closer look, the bolt that holds two pieces near the low pressure side had rusted in the aluminum and broke in two, so there wasn't actually anything holding this piece on there. As soon as we touched the bolt refrigerant came out in a high pressure blast that could have been really dangerous. It got all over the place!

The bottom half of the bolt was rusted and stuck in the aluminum. Had to remove the pipe section and use an acetylene torch and oil to boil the broken bolt from the aluminum. Trying to twist it out would have been a nightmare because it could have broke even more.

Just a quick tip, this may be a cause of a leak.

 

wow, all those years, and that's what end up killing your ac...
i'll have to make sure and eyeball mine next time i'm in the bay

 

Good gracious, I have never seen one do this before. Being in the south, I don't think it would ever be a problem. I could see the moisture build up all the time being the cooperate. Thanks for the heads up. Mine was leaking from the evaporator core in the dash. Now that's a pain to replace.