Hi all,

Having A/C issues. Put a fresh can of R134 in ... the pressure gauge that came with the kit shows it now to be somewhat overfilled. (My bad, never done that before ... do I need to bleed it a bit?)

Then I noticed the compressor didn't stay on. I jumped it at both the sensor and the relay, and it ran, but the air did not seem to get cool. Compressor does not stay on if it's not jumped.

Heat worked fine through winter, no problems there.

 

buy the way is sounds is ur not charged enoff or u have a bad switch r u jumping the low or high side switch

 

I'm taking a stab in the dark here.. but maybe you need to add more water? Into the little tank under the hood that says "CAUTION: Do not open when hot."

The reason for my logic being that my friend has a 98 Silverado and when that tank of water gets low, his A/C doesn't work, but when he poors a couple of pitchers into it, the A/C works great..until the tank is empty again.

EDIT: I just called him and asked him about it and he said his water pump has a leak so that's the reason he has to do that..

Take a look underneath your truck, any leaks?

 

Is the "pressure" gauge that you are using one of those cheapo plastic gauges that has the green yellow and red colors on it? They can vary wildly and are pretty inaccurate. Go find an AC guy with some real gauges or just keep adding till the compressor stays running.

 

Yep, it's the cheapo one that comes with the refill kit. Any danger in overfilling?

 

As in ... adding fluid to the radiator?

 

Not sure? Jumped it at the sensor, and jumped it at 87/30 (80/37?) on the relay.

 

Sure. If the high pressure switch triggers, it will shut the compressor off.

If running the compressor with a jumper wire does not result in the interior cooling down, then you have a problem that is beyond typical DIY status. You could have a look through the articles posted in the Tech Article (DIY) section (links below), but much of the work requires tools not typically in a DIY'er's tool box and are often $$$.

FluX On: Air Conditioning Part 1
FluX On: Air Conditioning Part 2 - Slow Leaks
FluX On: Air Conditioning Part 3 - Recharging

 

I just went outside on lunch and tried again. The pressure gauge reads high until the compressor kicks on, then it lowers down into the "green" or unfilled area. I'm using the port on the accumulator itself -- this is the low port, right?

The accumulator, or at least some of the fixtures on/leading to it, seem pretty new looking, I wonder if there was work done before I bought it last fall.

 

I bet it's still a little low, throw some more freon at the problem...