General Maintenance & Repairs - 2002 T/A WS6 A/C Leak

I did a few different searches but couldn't find any threads with the exact problem, doesn't seem like a hard one to fix.

My car's A/C was working perfectly all summer until about 3 weeks ago, the air was a bit warmer then normal, then the next day it was hot. I took it to jiffy lube and had them test it and recharge it. Their machine said it was very low on r134 but had no leaks so they recharged it. It worked great for the next 3 weeks until today, when it's blowing warmer than usual again...

I "think" i know where the leak is, but i'm not positive. I know very little about how any of this A/C stuff works... (see photos attached) I noticed condensation and dripping from around the discolored area of the lower metal pipe, just before the connection.

It's been happening when the car's been running for a while with the A/C on, and I never noticed that before these problems started. The car always released a bunch of water from somewhere under that area, presumably the condenser, right after the car was turned off but It never dripped water while running, and it was today. If I'm right, is this a common area to leak from and can I fix it myself? If not... what should I try next? I don't want to spend another $200 on a fix that doesn't work like the first time. Thanks in advance.

I had the same problem....mine turn out to be the compressor. Suxs!!!

Depending on where the leak is it can still pass a vacuum test. The best way to figure it out is have them pull a vacuum on it and put some dye in it.

the water dripping off is normal. the large hose is coming out of the evaporator and carries the "heated" freon from the evaporator to the accumulator. the small line is the high pressure line from the condensor where your orifice tube is. anyway. neither of those two places appear to be leaking because there would be oil stains and residue on it. look under the right front of the car at the compressor and see if it is oily behind the belt. then pull the air filter and upper radiator support and look at the condensor also for oily spots around connections. hope this helps.

Condensation won't indicate a leak; it's normal. You need to look for oil when you're searching for A/C leaks.

There's also a tool called a sniffer that most shops have. It's a probe that sniffs for signs of refrigerant by parts per million. If you were in good with a shop somewhere you could see about borrowing their sniffer. If all your refrigerant is leaked out already the sniffer won't find anything because it's no longer leaking or leaking at such a slow rate that it won't be detected.

I'm afraid if you're not able to visually find the leak or detect the location with a sniffer you're going to have to pay to have the system recharged again with ultraviolet dye added. Then a technician will be able to use an ultraviolet light to spot where the seep is coming from. In certain situations leaks won't be easy to find. You'll have to remove components individually to see in certain areas that otherwise wouldn't be visible.

Best of luck.

http://www.luvata.com/Global/Products/HeatTransfer/AC_Service_equip/Accessories/1/7000260300.jpg

[QUOTE=TallgeeseIV;16587310]I did a few different searches but couldn't find any threads with the exact problem, doesn't seem like a hard one to fix.

My car's A/C was working perfectly all summer until about 3 weeks ago, the air was a bit warmer then normal, then the next day it was hot. I took it to jiffy lube and had them test it and recharge it. Their machine said it was very low on r134 but had no leaks so they recharged it. It worked great for the next 3 weeks until today, when it's blowing warmer than usual again...






I had exactly the same problem that you described. It was my compressor. It was leaking from the front of it. From what I have read, this is common failure.

Well I brought it to a better shop this time, they couldn't find a leak so they refilled it, ran out again after 2 weeks. then they checked for dye and couldn't find any, so they put it on a machine to keep pressure on it all night... still nothing. their lead mechanic believes its the evaporator because it's the only part they can't get to to test... told me it's close to a $1,500 job to replace the evaporator... any thoughts?

Does it smell bad when you turn the fan on? Depending on how much the evap core is leaking it will smell like PAG/Ester oil when you turn the A/C on.

If the evap core is leaking sometimes you can see dye coming out of the drain hole in the bottom of the box.

If there are no signs of leaking anywhere on the outside its a good bet it probably is a core which sucks.

Alldata shows that job taking 5.9 hours. You will have 1 to 1.5 hours for evac/recharge and the price of the evap core, freon and some o rings. What's the shop hourly rate?

Hope you get yours figured out soon, my AC compressor just went out a couple weeks ago, I'm waiting to replace it when I have more time off of work. :/

I noticed something odd about a month ago, although I'm just now getting around to posting it.

I noticed vibrant green bubbles forming then popping at the edge of the black insulation around this slender silver pipe while the car was off, where the red circle is on the attached image.

What is this pipe?? What does it do? It seems to go from some element of the A/C system to the radiator. Could this be the source of my leak? Again, I have no idea how any of this works so the answer's probably pretty obvious.

My first thought was either it's r134 or engine coolant and since I've never seen any coolant leaks and my engine temperature has always been perfectly normal, I'm still leaning towards r134.

if thats the line that im thinking it is, it goes to your condenser (the radiator mounted to your engine coolant radiator) and if you say it is bubbling and its green, there is probably tracer dye in your ac system, and that's what your seeing escaping out.

Ah, excellent! There WAS tracer dye in the system at the time and I've been trying to find the leak forever. So this is probably it? Is it a cheap fix?

should just be able to recover the system, replace the line, then pull a good vacuum on it to boil out any moisture, and then recharge. I cant remember off the top of my head, but i'm pretty sure that line is just bolted to the condenser and should come off, if its a hard line that is attached and not bolted, you will have to replace it as a unit.

should just be able to recover the system, replace the line, then pull a good vacuum on it to boil out any moisture, and then recharge. I cant remember off the top of my head, but i'm pretty sure that line is just bolted to the condenser and should come off, if its a hard line that is attached and not bolted, you will have to replace it as a unit.

Even having to replace the whole unit sounds like good news. Because we never found the leak, the shop was theorizing that it was the evaporator, which would have been a very expensive job.