Prior to the last couple of weekends, my experience with car air conditioning was pretty limited. If it works, I'll use it. If it's weak, I'll use an "A/C Pro" to charge it. If it doesn't work, I either live without or (preferably) delete it altogether. For the last couple of weekends, I've attempted to add "repair broken AC component" to that list, but with no success.
Background: SWMBO drives a 2002 Ford Escape (3.0L/4x4) that was sort of a hand-me-down from my Dad. A couple of winters ago (IE Jan/Feb 2017) the car wouldn't start. Ended up being a completely seized AC compressor that was keeping the belt from turning. Since his house was within my free 5 mile AAA tow range, I had the car towed to my Dads to quickly come up with a fix and get the thing back on the road. We didn't really have time to wait for parts, so I sourced a "bypass pulley" at a local Autozone and installed it. While disconnected the line going from the compressor to the condenser, I removed the grill (which still had the one use tabs from the factory to keep it attached to the bumper cover) and became the first to discover that the car had been in a pretty big accident that creased the bumper beam into a 90* angle pushing into the AC condenser and a trans cooler line. Miraculously, neither had leaked.
Being that the Escape is rusty, leaks a ton of oil, and goes through Walker replacement exhaust system every two years, I figured I'd leave it as is with the delete pulley and let SWMBO drive my V8 Dakota with working AC in the summer. However, shortly after putting on the pulley, my Dad surprised me with a new compressor and receiver/dryer/accumulator, so I felt obligated to install them. I eventually also grabbed a nice newish looking condenser at a local "U Pull It" yard.
I never got around to doing it last summer and took a lot of heat (no pun intended) for it, although the Dakota helped ease it a little bit. This summer however, the Dakotas AC doesn't want to hold it's annual summer re-charge and SWMBO is starting to bitch about how thirsty it is, so I moved the job to the top of the list.
Anywho, a watched a whole bunch of YouTube videos and did some internet research and was pretty confident I could have the job done on my own. But here's how it has gone...
Last weekend:
-Installed the condenser and receiver/dryer/accumulator, any other parts that were taken off along with the seized compressor, and the new compressor after filling it with 7oz of PAG46 and some AC UV leak detector. Where apart, everything got new green O-rings.
-Connected manifold gauges and then used the vacuum pump to put vacuum on the system. Ended up finding a huge leak at the compressor, before it finally held vacuum... or at least seemed to hold it. I left it overnight with the pump off and it didn't lose any vacuum overnight.
-Used the vacuum pump to pull air/moisture out of the system and left it going for around 5 hours.
-Went to charge the system using the manifold gauges but figured out that I needed some silly adapter to go between the yellow line on the gauges and a can tap...
-Ran around from every local auto parts store and hardware store and no one had the adapter, so I decided to use one of those can tap/hoses that connect to the low side port without any sort of gauge
-Everywhere I looked said the Escape needed 32oz of R134A so I bought 3 12oz cans and grabbed a food scale to measure the 3rd
-First can went in without issue and a thermometer in the passenger side center vent was showing temps somewhere in the 70-80* range. Checked for leaks as it was going in and didn't see anything glaring.
-I was worried about screwing up and accidently letting air in the system, so between cans I shut the car off and pulled the hose off. Then I would start the car back up and slowly open the tap.
-Second can went in without issue and vent temp was just below 65*
-Shut the car off and grabbed the scale so I could make sure only 8oz came out of can #3
-While can #3 was going in, I noticed that the vent temps were back in the 80s, and upon this discovery I heard and quickly found a HUGE leak at the connector where a hose from the compressor goes to the condenser.
-At this point I gave up for the weekend and ordered the adapter so that I could charge using the manifold gauges the next weekend.
This past weekend:
-Used the schrader to see what was left in the system and it seemed to have leaked all $20 of R134A over the week it sat
-Removed the condenser and found that sediment and other junk was keeping the "peanut" style connector from going together straight. Cleaned it up and threw on another new O-ring for good measure.
-Put the vacuum pump back on and didn't find any new leaks and the system held vacuum for around an hour. Then vacuumed the system out for another hour and a half.
-(This is were things start getting really odd) Hooked up the adapter to the can tap and manifold gauge set, bled the air in the line and started the car and turned the ac on.
-I opened ONLY the low side port on the gauge set (both connectors on the car were open on the gauge hoses).
-It didn't seem like refrigerant was going into the car, and eventually I noticed the can started to get HOT and the vent temp was like 115*
-I shut the car off, disconnected everything and started over, and still got a HOT can and no change in vent temp
-I decided to go back to my simple low side line/can tap and filled similar to the previous weekend.
-By the end of can #1, vent temp was just under 65* like the weekend before, then for can #2 it went back up to around 80*. However there was no glaring leak this time.
-After that I decided not to waste another can and figured I'd go back to the drawing board.
I'm really stumped by this whole thing...
Why would the AC just quit getting cold midway through being charged (if there is no new leak)? Why did the can get hot when I tried filling using the manifold gauges? Is there anything in my play by play that I did completely wrong or backwards?
Now, of course, I'm getting crap from SWMBO completely opposite of last summer, like "I told you not to bother with it now", "It was fine, I was getting used to it".
I appreciate any help...
