Thread: AC problem

This weekend i borrowed my brothers pickup to move some stuff out of my old apartment.I left my GP at his house,he was supposed to juice the AC,(hes an hvac tech)if i washed his filthy-arse truck.

My AC wasnt working properly(it was blowing warm air).He says the compressor wont hold a charge.What could cause this problem? Do i need a new compressor?

Alot of people don't know it, but you should have the a/c system evaced every 4-5 years. There are plenty of post on here to read about this, don't want to steal anyones thunder. But, what haappens is over time it builds up a gas inside the lines that will eat away at the a/c components, seals and stuff of that nature. Along with that, the orafic tube and accumolator need to be changed, especially if the system has been opened up. I just finished changind all that on mine because the compressor had a small leak. Get your brother to thraow some dye in it to see if the leak will show itself. Hate to see you replace the compressor if it's not what is leaking. It has a low pressure safty switch on it so if your pressure is to low, the copressor won't kick on and burn itself up. Do what you can to see if you can find the leak first. Then when you fix that, chand=ge the other two things, recharge it and you should be good to go. Hope this helps.

There will also be some slight oil buildup wherever the leak is. It's possible that it could be the evaporator core in the HVAC box under the dash where you can't see the leak.

thanx for the imput guys,i ran your post by my brother via the telephone, and he says he added 2 lbs,which should be enough to kick the compressor on even if there is a leak.but it wont kick on at all,which is why he wouldnt add dye (ive got nothing to push it through the system).he advised before i go ahead and go leak testing,and replacing the accumulator and such to just have a mechanic take a look. ..

THe one thing he didnt know about was evap core (not sure about automotive i guess)Could u tell me more about this by chance?

Thanx guys.

Originally Posted by evilpacker

thanx for the imput guys,i ran your post by my brother via the telephone, and he says he added 2 lbs,which should be enough to kick the compressor on even if there is a leak.but it wont kick on at all,which is why he wouldnt add dye (ive got nothing to push it through the system).he advised before i go ahead and go leak testing,and replacing the accumulator and such to just have a mechanic take a look. ..

THe one thing he didnt know about was evap core (not sure about automotive i guess)Could u tell me more about this by chance?

Thanx guys.

The evaporator core sits inside the cabin right behind the heater core. If that is the source of the leak when nothing else is detected, the only way to tell is to tear that apart. It's a pain I must warn you.

On some cars you can jump the low pressure switch on the line and force the compressor to start. Sometimes that will also keep it from kicking on.

If you retest the pressure in the system and it doesn't show a charge, then you still have a leak somewhere, and just need to find it.

if the compressor wasn't on and he pushed it in, it still won't kick on usually, you have to bypass the switches and make it run