any tricks for keeping truck cooler? AC wise.

Interesting how you omitted the parts where I explained exactly why the canned AC recharges aren't a good idea. Sure, they have a place as far as limping your system along until you can get it serviced properly, but they're far more likely to cause lots of premature wear and replacement of compressors. Mechanics and parts counters love that part, just as much as Autozone loves selling the cans by the pallet every July

Yes, small leaks happen all the time. But it's still a leak, not normal operation. Even if you deem a small leak to not be worth fixing, that's understandable, it's still not good to use a can. Because that's like finding a small oil puddle under your truck and adding a quart just-because. Is it enough? Too much? Hell, the oil pressure light is off, maybe it's fine, maybe it'll cause thousands of dollars in damage. *shrugs* your gamble.

If you've got an old beater you're not invested in, you're just trying to get it working, by all means dump a can of refrigerant in there. I've done it, not pretending I haven't. But it's not great to tell people its a good idea to do with their $40k vehicles they actually care about.

 

Freon is a brand name. It's like calling generic toaster pastries Pop-Tarts. From what I remember, the old refrigerant was R12 and the replacement is R134A. I had a car that came with R12, but needed something changed to use the new stuff. The AC never seemed as cold after that.

During the time I had my Tacoma, I needed to recharge the system once. I only used the AC maybe once or twice a year for those extremely hot days. The cost of having a mechanic diagnose the system and properly charge it didn't seem that expensive. And by mechanic, I don't mean the dopes at jiffy lube type places.

 

I started testing "good advice" a long time ago on my own cars. Mainly to see if mechanics/shops were actually being truthful, or just selling fear. I've run belts for 70K miles after being advised to replace them, only replacing because I was selling the car. I've also had shops want to sell me ball joints a year after the same shop had replaced them. I've learned that a lot of advice is geared to making money for the mechanics/shops and with a little experience you can discern between the good to go and the this needs attention right now kinds of issues. Recently I've been testing the theory that branded titles mean a car is crap. So far I expect my "totaled" cars to run without any more issues than an unbranded title. I've got a hundred thousand on them between three vehicles and not a single mechanical failure after repair in my driveway with an average toolbox.

Yesterday there was a guy posting because he was worried about a slight dimple in the frame of his brand new truck, and he was going to "take it to a third party" for an inspection. I'm not that guy.

You want to fix a "freon" leak that bleeds off just enough to be only noticeably less cold... every six years? It's your money. Me?, I'll buy a can and recharge, saving the can to do another car or another recharge in six years.

My beaters generally run a couple of hundred thousand miles before I sell them running well. I've found that the more a car is worked on, the more likely it is to need to be worked on. That includes over maintaining a car. It also matters how you drive. Some people can't break a car and others can't drive one without breaking it.

And pardon me for not answering every single molehill.

 

^^^^ This ^^^^

Start with AC button on, full fan and full cold on the temp selector dial, all windows down and re-circ selector: "off". Drive until you can feel the cold air from the vents starting to make a difference, turn recirc button on: Close windows. Switch to outside air when you have to reduce fan speed or adjust temp dial from full cold to maintain comfortable temperature. There is nothing wrong with running your A/C on recirc continuously if that's what it takes to stay comfortable on a brutal day.

 

OP your original post was a month ago and apparently your a/c still isn’t up to what it should be. A/C is a complicated system the average guy doesn’t know shit about. I know a lot about cars and car repair but I don’t know shit about a/c (car or house). Find a reputable shop and take to a pro, an a/c expert. You can mess around with he A/C and maybe fuk it up worse than it is. Just take it to a pro and get er done.

 

A good windshield sun deflector and get some Weathertech Window Visors. Leave the windows cracked with the in channel window visors and it lets the super hot air out. I also have a 12v solutions remote start, so I will leave the windows cracked, with set to max AC. I can start my truck from my boat on a 100+ degree day and it’s cool before I even make it up the dock

 

I have had a few vehicles with Automatic Climate Control and the newer ones would start in Recirc mode (max) intially, then switch automatically to outside air once the interior cooled down some. It could also be manually turned off and on, but I think it would always return to recirc mode after a re-start if it was set to "Auto". (It would not do this in winter/during colder months. (select/start in recirc mode)

 

Look man, I'm not trying to get argumentative with you. I'm a veteran driveway mechanic myself, including a couple of ground-up rebuilds on cars and bikes, and rarely have to take my vehicles to a shop and let other people work on them. Most things I agree can be done with a basic set of the right tools. I've been there and done that, and will continue to. But I'm not gonna pull out a harbor freight belt sander to deck and hone my engine blocks.

I've also had parts last way longer than their advertised service life. I've also had parts break long before they should have. Sometimes statistics and trends are all we have to go on, and of course there will be outliers.

The only point I'm trying to make is that AC simply isn't something that can be done right with a discount can of refrigerant with a single cheapo disposable pressure gauge. That's not how the system works, there are a lot more factors at play than just pressure. More isn't better in this case; every valve, passage, and compressor is tuned to a specific amount (mass) of refrigerant in the system. A can of PowerFreez may temporarily revive a drained system once the low pressure switch kicks back on, but without the instruments to measure how much you're putting in, it's only gonna be on borrowed time till it either leaks down again or something fails catastrophically. Maybe next day, maybe 50k miles later. It's a crapshoot.

Not to mention many cans also include a stop-leak of some sort, which gums up everything you run it through eventually. Especially if there's air in there. A leak doesn't only allow refrigerant to escape, but air and moisture to get in, which will further wreck the system from the inside out. Meaning after dumping 3 or 4 $30 cans in, you'll be paying $thousands$ to remove the entire dashboard and replace components that could have been saved by taking it to a qualified AC tech and changing out a seeping $10 schrader valve in 20mins.

 

Those R134a refill cans really should not be sold in stores. You can bet your ass there's a lot of people who just limp their AC along, year after year, by just recharging it and letting it leak out in the winter.

A leak is a leak. Doesn't matter if it's air in tires, oil in an engine block. Not being able to contain a leak means something needs to be fixed permanently.

 

Well I'm confident that we are only off by a matter of degrees (wink).

So if you don't use a recharge, why do you think so many people are running cars for decades and only doing a recharge every (whatever) years (more or less) with no further issues? And I've known techs that use them on their own cars. (And also drain the oil from client Corvettes every thousand miles and use that oil in their own cars.)

I've never said it would solve every problem. But it's my experience (and a LOT of experience intentionally testing) that wrenching on a car is more a problem than some small problems with solutions than can avoid a wrench.

And truthfully, I see a lot of people that worry about things I would never even consider being concerned about. A lot of people seem to be very anal to the point of being OCD. And I get as many miles out of my cars, and spend a LOT less money on them. The OP may need a wrench... and my suggestion was just a suggestion.

Is your suggestion a suggestion? Or an edict?

 

I'm not making suggestions, I'm just stating the facts. A refrigerant leak is what it is; a hole in a sealed system that's slowly pissing toxic gases into the atmosphere. And in order to refill an AC system to designed specs, one must fix that leak, evacuate the system, and pump a measured amount of refrigerant back in for everything to work properly. Failure to do that will result in a system that will not perform optimally, be overloaded, and wear out prematurely.

DIfferent people have different priorities. Some, like me, tend to worry less because they can fix problems themselves. Others may not have the know-how to diagnose and fix their vehicles. Some people don't mind beating on their vehicles, others want their expensive truck maintained to specs. Mechanic-in-a-cans are marketed to the ones that don't know any better, as they only kick the problem slightly down the road, giving them time to develop into much more costly breakdowns that service writers drool over.

 

And some people see it differently and do just fine...

If I find a tire that's down a couple of pounds I don't go get the tire dismounted. I just put some air in it and watch it. OH... The HORROR!!!

 

Agreed. I do need to take it in to be vacuumed and add dye to find the leak.

problem is that im working overtime at my regular job, and have a bunch of side gigs that i have to do after. And then weekends, the wife always plans something. But i will take it into a ac shop. We are mostly driving our Honda Accord, also 2015, and that ac has been the same since new. (not leaking out, stays cold). I think i chipped one of the lines or the condenser with a small rock when we were off roading somewhere.

as far as adding "freon".....im also in the club that it shouldn't have to be added every so often. It is supposed to be a sealed system and not be touched (beside the cabin air filter). Its the same thing as brake fluid. I belive that it should never be topped off. It is at the full mark when the car is new. As the pads wear out, the level gets lower. Once you put the new pads in, fluid goes back up. For the ac system, there should be a specific ammount of "freon" and oil. I had to change an AC pump on a RSX before due to too much oil in it. And the condenser now that i remeber.

As far as air in the tires, we all know that tires leak air slowly. that is a normal thing for them to do.


As far as this thread..i gained a lot of knowledge. To leave the windows slightly open so hot air can escape when parked. Putting a sun deflector on. Starting the car and not receralating the air until all the hot air escapes.

Thank you everyone.


Here is one of the side gigs i was working on. Changing all the oils, plugs, distributor, shocks, heater core, radiator, setting ignition timing, fixing the exhaust, and more im forgetting. Hate, hate, hate this car. working on it. Im so used to 90s and up JDM cars. But on a test drive around the block i pull up to a red light, me in one lane and lambo in the other. Pack of bikers pull up and start giving me compliments on it. lol completely ignoring the lambo.

 

Man the best thing I've done to current vehicles and old ones I no longer own is ripping all the interior pieces out and laying down closed cell foam and sound deadener on all of the open sheet metal areas. My 4runner was so bad with no insulation on the roof and stock headliner that I could feel heat radiating through the headliner on hot days. I still need to insulate and sound deaden the floor but just doing the doors and roof, no ceramic tint, I can now get too cold on hot days and typically run the AC around 75 degrees or the lowest fan speed. Once I do the floor and ceramic tint, I'll be freezing my nuts off driving that thing on hot days lol. This is on a 220k mile 4th gen runner btw, lots of open sheet metal areas.

My last Tacoma I insulated everything and I swear the 250k mile AC worked more efficiently than it ever did before.

 

sounds nice to pull the headliner drop it off to reupholster in suede. Dunno how hard the pillars are. Sometimes car pillar fabric is adhered much stronger.

I gotta figure out how to clean the door insides to prep for adhesion
Maybe replace the vapor barriers
The insides are full of dirt

probably would need a driveway. Remove door panels, soap scrub inside, rinse out, let dry

I tried this in a garage using wet wipes and besides taking forever always coming up dirty wipe/endless amount of dirt, it never reached full clean no matter how many wipes (phrasing)