A/C Hose Leak

[That'll Buff]

Noticed my AC on full blast was blowing either slightly warm to barely cooler than the surrounding air. Bought a small can of R134a and a hose with a gauge to try and recharge it and noticed that the system wasn't really all that low. I only held the trigger no more than five seconds and it was already perfectly full. Started looking around and noticed a visibly damp AC line that I'm not sure how I missed. No dye test needed, I could see the bright green coolant bubbling up through what looked like a couple of pin holes in the rubber. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures so I'll post a reply with much better pictures showing exactly what I'm talking about, so bear with me while I work with what I've got. The hose that is leaking is the one pointed to with the green arrow, I believe it is hose 1 in the parts picture. The leak is near the bottom crimped end going to what looks like the AC condenser if I had to guess (part 5 in the picture). Are there steps I can take myself to fix it, or is this a problem that is easier to hand over to someone else? Any advice is appreciated.

 

[Chris]

You can replace that yourself but in order to refill the system you're going to need to take it to a shop that has the tools to recharge it.

 

[That'll Buff]

Good to know. So I'll have to take it to a shop at some point no matter what, not great for scheduling reasons so I'll have to figure out a time to do it.

 

[JKP]

If the system is full, you'll need to get a shop to evacuate the R134A.

To replace the hose, you'll need some compressor oil to lube the orings and replace any lost to the leak.

To refill, you could do it yourself with a loaner vacuum pump and gauges from the parts store, but hopefully the shop that evacuated it would refill it for a reasonable fee.

 

[macleanflood]

Definitely get an o-ring kit and replace all the rings.

And the receiver drier.

-Mac

 

[That'll Buff]

I'll plan to talk to a shop at some point to compare prices and get the system more properly checked. To add onto this I noticed there is no condensation coming out of the AC drain hose when normally there's quite a bit. Makes me think that there may be more going on than I initially believed. If it's just the hose and drier needing to be replaced I may just leave it with them for simplicity, but if its something more that drives the price way up I'll likely replace the parts myself and only get the evacuation and recharge.

 

[JKP]

Get the loaner gauges from a parts store so you can read both high and low sides.

Pull up the FSM for your yr under Resources for the spec'd temps, pressures, etc.

See if the compressor is actually running, you may have a bad low or high pressure cut off switch.

 

[OilSpot74]

Good to know. So I'll have to take it to a shop at some point no matter what, not great for scheduling reasons so I'll have to figure out a time to do it.

A full recharge should take no more than 45 minutes even with old equipment. The shops that are lucky enough to have the newest toys can do it in half the time. Plus we have the old coolant which is about a buck an ounce compared to the YF stuff that is 6x that.

 

[KennethS]

Plus we have the old coolant

Coolant is in the radiator. Refrigerant is in the AC.

 

[OilSpot74]

Coolant is in the radiator. Refrigerant is in the AC.

Like I meant.

 

[reelbusy]

most popular recharge how-to on yt: vid

i used it on our van 5 years ago when replaced condenser and just pulled it from my play list the other day to replace a hose on my kids acadia, then recharge it. Old Line blew just from slight movement from replacing the radiator lol of course after got it back together. Can't imagine you'd have any freon in there to worry about with a bad hose. I just use the basic 100 dollar vac pumps and gauges off amazon but can do loaners too. Napa for the r134a in my neck of the woods. Pretty easy, the thing to understand when watching the video is the knobs control the flow from the central port, it's easy to get confused and think they are turning off the high and low side (which isn't the case that's what the knobs on port hoses are for), they just control the flow from your vac or recharge yellow central port.

 

[That'll Buff]

I'll definitely look into it all more. Sorry to seem like I'm going one way then another. I'm in the final stretch of my degree so if I'm not on campus studying and doing homework I'm at someones house working on projects. Thinking about anything other than school right now seems impossible lol. I reached out to a friend who might have a vacuum pump and gauges and am waiting to hear back. I'm not in a rush (although that doesn't mean I'm content) so I might have to just learn to love the window being down for a bit once it starts to get even warmer than it already is. I just need some time to really go through it along with the couple of other issues I've been needing to tackle elsewhere.