bradsmit

Hey:

Had issues with A/C last year, got new hose installed and recharged and all was well till this spring, NO A/C. Went and got it pressure tested said it was good, probably just leaked out over winter he said, cold on the o-rings makes them contract...blah blah. So he recharges it and it works for month, now it is dead, was a hissing type noise I would hear occasianlly under the passenger dash. Any ideas??

1995 Accord v6 4 dr Auto EXR

Think its time to sell t his puppy?? has 275,000 KM..

GenXer

It sounds like either a leak in your evaporator, or the connection to it. It could be a blown o-ring, but I bet there are other reasons besides outside temp.

Contracting o-rings during the winter? That's new one on me. O-rings are in compression when installed, so you'd need to have crummy ones on there for them to leak.

BTW, has your car been converted to R134a from R12?

stereo

sounds like the shop just patched the problem instead of fixing it, if the system had no freon it had to go somewhere slow leaks are hard to detect hopefully he put dye in the last time... most likely it's a O-ring but can be a compressor or condensor but the dye will tell all.

p.s 94-97 accords are famous for the evaporator leaking.

bradsmit

Yes I believe my A/C has been converted...

He uses the old soap and water tick...no die

I will give him another shot at it and then off to a more high tech shop if no results

Thanks guys

GenXer

The reason I mentioned a converted system is because R134a runs at higher pressures. I ran into this with my Civic when I converted. I had to replace no less than 2 o-rings that decided to give way, along with an evap., a hose, and a pop-off valve on the compressor. Since Hondas aren't usually prone to that kind of trouble, I figured the changover was the likely culprit.

Make sure your mechanic isn't trying to use the sightglass to check if it's full, because you can't do that with a dryer on R134a, only R12. He has to know how much refrig. to put in, period.

You also may want to check for sure but I think the o-ring mat'l is diff. with
R134a too. I've been told that R12 o-rings will eventually fail on R134a.

Some mechanics have a "sniffer" that they can poke around with, and a buzzer will go off when a leak is detected.

bradsmit

went back and they looked areound with the special light thing and sprayed soapy water on everything and no leaks. They believe it is somtign in the evaporator under the passenger dash. So they refiled it this time with some dye in it and if it leaks out again they look for the dye. If they can find nothing we move to the leak sealant stuff that they put in with the gas.

Any comment on the leak sealant stuff?? Its kind of a last resort thing as replacing evaporator is like 1000 or so.

stereo

converted ? 94+ accords are R134a from the factory , if they are using soap and water are they washing the car ? as pros use dye and leak detectors to find leaks sometimes the problem is the hose valves. the evaporator is about $250 under 3 it takes 1 hour to replace ( takes me 30mins) and replace the o-rings .