The pressure test should pinpoint your problem.

George

 

When the test is conducted and it is discovered that a connection needs to be tightened, that's not a guarantee that it was the only loose connection, just that it was the loosest, correct? Or is the gas under a high enough pressure that it will expose all loose connections?

 

Depends on how bad the leak is. If you can get the system pressurized to 150 psi, you can find them all. If its a large leak, not so much.

Now mind you, it depends on where the leak is as to how easy this will be. If its in the evap unit then thats tricky. If its the accumulator schrader, easy peasy.


George

 

Called some shops in the area, and they all just do a leak detection with a freon test charge, but I'll probably still take it there because I don't have a tank of freon with a valve, just the little canisters. Hopefully, the end is in sight.

 

My evap to high-pressure line connection was very loose, tightened that down, and....it still leaks but WAY more slowly. I am starting to suspect the compressor mounting bolt for the hose assembly bc I went to make sure that it was also tight and it was basically spinning in place, so I'm pretty sure that I stripped the threads (ON A BRAND NEW COMPRESSOR) the other day when I cracked the aluminum block for the first hose assembly.

Looked up some quick fixes for how to deal with a stripped aluminum bolt hole.... How insane would it be to wrap the bolt in aluminum foil or copper wire? Or is there enough room for a slightly longer bolt that would reach heretofore untouched threads?

I really do not want to have to/have someone else drill and tap a new hole, especially in the event that the threadless bolt hole in the aluminum block is too small for the slightly larger bolt.

 

Your best bet for the stripped threads is probably a helicoil or a threaded insert. I have nothing to offer on specific sizes and sources but you could research that. I have a Toyota 4 banger that had 4 head bolts cut loose at 167,000 miles due to a well known design defect. I drilled and tapped all of the block threads and placed inserts for the headbolts and it has worked perfectly for over 100,000 miles.


George

 

So with a hole that seems like the threads are only somewhat stripped, still somewhat of a grip, do I still have to drill and tap, or could I just pop in the threaded insert?

 

You drill and tap the hole and screw in an insert that has the bolt threads or a wire coil on the inner surface. I have no idea if your remaining threads are substantial enough to hold your bolts at the proper torque for the life of the compressor.


George

 

Before going the drill and tap route, I want to try to make sure that there isn't a leak elsewhere that I might be missing.

I am considering purchasing a recharge kit with UV dye and oil, basically doing what the shop already did except my leak is less substantial now. Since I already added the correct amount of oil, will a kit with oil in it cause issues? How can I be sure this oil is okay to be mixed into my system? Are there similar kits without oil?

I would also like to avoid kicking on the compressor for the time being - in case there are issues with the mounting bolt, I don't want the pressure from the running compressor to make the situation any worse. Is it alright to use this kit without running the compressor? I think that running the compressor will just expose the leak sooner, but since I went from -30 to -20 within 30 minutes, it'll probably expose itself soon enough.

 

I don't like refrigerant that has any additives like oil or dye so I only use straight gas from 30lb jugs. Most of the small cans from the auto parts store have extra stuff in them but if I remember correctly Advanced Auto house brand is straight 134a gas. You only use enough refrigerant to expose the leak and no more because it is illegal to intentional release refrigerant to the atmosphere. That's why dry nitrogen is best. A spray bottle with water and a few drops of plain dish soap is the best leak finder. At rest both sides of the refrigerant circuit is at around 120 psi depending on the ambient temp so that tests the low side very well. The high side gets exposed to higher pressures in operation so in theory there could be a leak not exposed at 120 psi but shows up at 200+ psi but I have never had that happen myself. I use my electronic leak detector when I first get to a unit that is suspected of having a leak as a gross once over but once I'm working on the unit I use the spray bottle because its faster and more accurate. That and checking for oil at the connections. I could see a dye as useful if I ever ran into a situation where I suspected the leak to be in the evap unit and it was hard to access the coils and fins but I could get the light in there with a camera. That or the electronic detector.

Your going to have to decide what to do with the stripped threads because I can't assess their ability to hold.


George