A/C charging question

[fastivaca]

Went to charge up the A/C on my Festiva yesterday. Had it on a vacuum pump for a while and it had no leaks. I'm using the McParts store recharging cans and hoses. Hooked up the hose and can as per instructions and the gauge went into the high range right away! The system took a little bit of refrigerant but nowhere near enough for the compressor to kick in. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks

[ryanprins13]

Did you hook it up to the low side, was the fitting screwed all the way tight on the low side and was the car running with a/c on? Could you tell if it actually made it into your a/c system or just charged the filler hose?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[FestYboy]

The DIY R-134a kits only fill from the low side port (2 different sized ports for high and low). So that eliminates the first possibly. As to wether it was fully seated...???

Next thing to check since the compressor didn't kick on is do you have power at the clutch, and if not, do you have power to the relay (high and low) and are the pressure switches good (ground control for the low side of the relay). With 30 or more psi in the system, both switches are normally closed.

[blowby]

R134 which you may have purchased will not work with the oil in a Festiva AC system unless you changed the oil to R134 compatible oil. I think R134 can damage the system when mixed with the wrong oil. The Festiva uses R22 refrigerant which is expensive and hard to find and - requires it's own oil.... (R22 was phased out in the mid 90's ) Also ---- 32 to 35 lbs is a good target for a normal operating system.... + or - 3 is ok but over 60 will damage the system.
--A great product called Duracool is a life saver for the - do it your selfer .... It works with both kinds of oil for R134 and the much older R22 and is equal in efficiency to R22 which was actually very good -- and it's 30% more efficient than the R134 stuff....which is a lot.... It's not illegal to vent into the atmosphere and it's sold by a Canadian outfit that nobody seems to know about it. Yeah it's flammable but not as flammable as R134.
I found it after a $550 or more - estimate to convert to R134 got me looking around.

[Team Lightning]

I thought Festivas had R12 from the factory. Wasn't R22 the home ac version?

[tooldude]

I thought Festivas had R12 from the factory. Wasn't R22 the home ac version?

^Right^

[blowby]

My mistake. R12 is the Festiva refrigerant that was phased out in the mid 90's ......I mentioned R22 incorrectly.

[blowby]

R134 which you may have purchased will not work with the oil in a Festiva AC system unless you changed the oil to R134 compatible oil. I think R134 can damage the system when mixed with the wrong oil. The Festiva uses R22 refrigerant which is expensive and hard to find and - requires it's own oil.... (R22 was phased out in the mid 90's ) Also ---- 32 to 35 lbs is a good target for a normal operating system.... + or - 3 is ok but over 60 will damage the system.
--A great product called Duracool is a life saver for the - do it your selfer .... It works with both kinds of oil for R134 and the much older R22 and is equal in efficiency to R22 which was actually very good -- and it's 30% more efficient than the R134 stuff....which is a lot.... It's not illegal to vent into the atmosphere and it's sold by a Canadian outfit that nobody seems to know about it. Yeah it's flammable but not as flammable as R134.
I found it after a $550 or more - estimate to convert to R134 got me looking around.

---
I meant to say R12 for the Festive ...........It's not R22........sorry

[FestYboy]

Well in that case, it had to have been converted. You cannot purchase R12 without a license and the connections are completely different as well.

[zoe60]

I bought R 12 off of Ebay. No one asked me for anything. Love my A C now! Different filler hose which is available on the bay as well.

[Eaglefreek]

I've done the R134a conversion on a few cars without flushing the R12 oil out without any consequences. Did you have a set of gauges hooked up when you vacuumed the system? If not, how did you know you pulled a vacuum? If so, when you removed the gauges, you probably lost the vacuum, which you really should have when you initially recharge the system. The gauge on the can will read high at first until the compressor kicks on and creates a suction. On a side note, I recently recharged my Isuzu Trooper with R152a aka computer duster and it blows nice and cold.

[FestYboy]

I bought R 12 off of Ebay. No one asked me for anything. Love my A C now! Different filler hose which is available on the bay as well.

Technically not legal...

[fastivaca]

Did you have a set of gauges hooked up when you vacuumed the system? If not, how did you know you pulled a vacuum? If so, when you removed the gauges, you probably lost the vacuum, which you really should have when you initially recharge the system. The gauge on the can will read high at first until the compressor kicks on and creates a suction.

We used a set of gauges to determine that a vacuum was pulled. Did it more so to dry out the system and check for leaks. When we turned off the pump the gauge didn't move for the five or ten minutes we watched it so I'm assuming there are no leaks.

Did you hook it up to the low side, was the fitting screwed all the way tight on the low side and was the car running with a/c on? Could you tell if it actually made it into your a/c system or just charged the filler hose?

Hooked up to the low side and we made sure the fittings were securely in place and doing what they were supposed to be doing. Car was running with the A/C turned on as well as the blower fan.

I gave it another shot this afternoon with a new can of refrigerant. The gauge on the filler kit went up to at least 45psi without the compressor kicking in. I have confirmed that refrigerant is getting into the system. When I depress the valve on the low side fitting, refrigerant spits out. I'm going to check out the relays as previously suggested. We checked that the compressor was turning freely without the clutch engaged so I don't think that's the issue. What else should I be looking at?

How can I tell whether I have the factory system or the dealer installed version? I bought the entire setup years ago from a California forum member and it ran fine in the red car before transferring things over to the current one.

As always, your input is greatly appreciated.

Ian

[Skrapbob]

Factory compressor (bolts are side to side)


Dealer compressor (bolts got from front to rear)

[fastivaca]

Factory compressor (bolts are side to side)

Thank you sir! I have the factory system... at least the compressor is. Another question though... I have the factory compressor with a single v-groove pulley. The replacements I've seen on Rockauto seem to have the multigrooved belts. Is it possible that my pulley/clutch was changed at some point or...????

Ian