What's up with my A/C ?

I just recharged my ac a few weeks ago and it worked great! It held a vacuum for 1 hour. Then sucked it down for a hour as well. Ac was working great today. Made a quick stop off the freeway and now nothing. Same air that comes out when the ac is off.
Any ideas?

 

because r134 is so dangerous, i wouldn't recommend anything other than taking it to someone that has an AC machine that can do a proper diagnostics on it.

 

Sounds electrical to me unless you had a hose fail in which case you most likely would know.

connector came loose causing a poor connection

Just how is r134 more dangerous then any other refrigerant ?? I think working with the Ammonia systems is by far worse.

 

Eh? Unless you're huffing it, it's pretty safe as long as you use your noggin.

OP, is the compressor kicking on, if not, start at the simple spots, fuses, relays, connections, power to clutch. If the clutch doesn't engage then it can be low on R-134 or there is no power to the compressor clutch.

 

also its not uncommon to have the access valve cores leak on you and everything is sealed until you disconnect the hoses so just because the system passed the leak test the last item in the system that's the hardest to know about and isn't checked with hoses connected, is the valve core seals in the access valves. so if you find it low, replace those first before doing anything else

 

I will check to see if the compressor is kicking in. There was a weird noise behind the dash. The blower motor was making a slight noise. I don't smell any refrigerant from inside

 

I don't know where any of that is lol

 

Will check today. The light does still come on

 

The access valves are under the hood and usually have a cap on them that says high and low on our Toyotas.
Mine are gray.
You will probably never smell the refrigerant.

 

How would I see if they are leaking ?

 

Take the cap off, spit on your finger tip and wipe the spit on the valve .
If it is leaking, it will bubble.

 

Ok I will check. I've replaced both hoses and conpressor before the charge

 

true

my 99 4runner has a front valve leak, one tiny bubble per minute with spit

just slow enough that capping it tightly with screw cap ...haven't needed a recharge in 6 years

 

Will check the valves later but the ac compressor is not engaging when I turn it on. So probably lost the freon. The valves seem like a pretty likely cause, at least I hope so since that's easy to do

 

It's actually been 3 weeks since I charged it.

 

Would that cause the compressor to stop working after about 3 weeks? I checked valves and the high side made a slight "osh" sound when I popped it off. It also had a little bit of oil in the cap. It did not bubble though. Would that be enough to cause this ? Didn't look like a big leak if any at all.

 

If you lost your charge, you will not be able to see the leak, as I described it to you.
Buy a couple of cans of refrigerant, if it is full, it won't take any more.

 

That's the plan. Just have to rent the gauges again. Before the motor swap my ac never lost a charge so I'm not sure why now its acting up. I did replace the suction line with a used one

 

this part is not true, you can continue adding until a line bursts or the high pressure pop off valve opens.

you add Freon only on the low side and while its running and the "normal" low side idle operating pressures are "usually" anywhere from 35-40 lbs but Freon is at 100 lbs pressure in the can when at room temp so yes you can and people do often overcharge their systems.

if you put too much pressure in them they will not cool as well since the cooling temp rises with the pressure once it starts getting overcharged.

as to exact numbers, well you need to know what you are doing and it varies based on the temperatures that day as well as knowing how to tell when the evaporator is full and you "feel" liquid Freon start to come out of the large tubing leaving the evaporator so you know the system is indeed fully charged up.

im not about to (nor can anyone one else who isn't uneducated about a/c systems) tell you there is an exact correct charge pressure number as a rule, but, as long as its at idle and running at 30-40 lbs range on the low side line on a good warm day, then you are ok, anything over or under you should add more or let some out

 

Followed this and after two full cans it was perfect and fit the chart perfectly.only thing is I had to bend very slightly the two ac lines coming out of the firewall. I figured since those pretty much crack in half or don't then I would certainly be able to tell if it broke during the vacuum test. But it didn't budge. I'm hoping it's the valve core leaking. There was some oil in the cap and it made a pressure sound when removed. Would it really leak that fast though??