Alright so my AC blows nothing but hot air and i had a shop try and recharge it and they told me they couldnt and something was wrong with it. I bought a gauge and it was past the overcharge zone where it said there was a mechanical failure.

I just hooked the gauge up today and it read nothing, so i hooked it up to the can and tried to charge it and it immediately went up to match the can pressure and stopped.

I would like to do some troubleshooting but from what i read in other threads some of what people are saying I am not sure what I need to look at. Like the compressor clutch coming on?

 

Is that their exact words? "somethings wrong with it. can't fix it"

I think it went more like this, they told you it was low on refrigerant and you figured you'd save a few bucks by charging it yourself.

The gauge went to overcharge probably because they put a trace amount of refrigerant in it and bumped up the pressure with a cheaper gas and did a leak check and found a leak.

Then when you checked the second time it had leaked all out. Then you put refrigerant in it, it equalized out to can pressure (and you just let that can of refrigerant into the atmosphere). You'd have the same result just sitting the can on a chair and shooting it with a BB gun except it'd be more fun maybe.


Lets start at the last few steps of repairing an AC system thats out of refrigerant.

Do you have a manifold gauge set and a vacuum pump?
These are somewhat expensive tools needed to do the job right.

You can find a leak and fix it but you still need the vacuum pump and gauge set.
If you don't have the right tools you might just save a lot of time and money by letting a shop fix it.

 

No actually it happend exactly like I said it, they said something was wrong with the system and it wasnt a simple charge and go. So if you want to be a ******* ******** then please go troll somewhere else. For every 99 people that go out of their way to help people and give good advice, there is 1 like you who personifies the ******* mentality.

 

Ok then I'll be a ******* ******** and tell you to search and find the SEVERAL POSTS in this forum where I explained AC repair from the beginning to end. Written out fully everytime.
You WILL find your answer in one of them. I'm just tired of typing the same **** every week.

 

11:04pm est
I'd start the easy way and unplug the compressor clutch, see what terminals you need and attach two jumper wires to it. Touch one wire to positive and one to ground, it doesn't matter which is which.
If it doesn't click the clutch is bad.
If you hear the clutch click, take your wires off and reconnect the plug.
While you're down there check the belt, and see if the center of the clutch (the actual compressor) turns free, with some resistance.

Since the clutch worked with power to it you need to find out where the break in power is, usually it runs out of refrigerant and the safety switch prevents it from coming on, so you need to be sure you have over 50 psi in the high side (liquid line), if you put it in the low side it should eventually pressurize the whole system. If you don't have a manifold gauge set poke the high side valve with something to be sure theres pressure in the line.

You could check the relay by removing it and jumping the main power terminals in the relay socket with the key on.

Check all the fuses.

Be sure the pressure switch is plugged in, you can take the plug out and jumper two wires on it but i forgot the colors, just look in the switch there are two terminals, the plug has three wires, jump the two wires that go to the two terminals. With everything jumped out turn the car on and AC on high. Listen for the compressor but better yet look to see if the center hub is spinning.

If still nothing look at the switch in the dash, take it out and make sure you get continuity between the terminals, I don't know the wire colors.

If that makes the compressor run (everything jumped out) with it running reconnect everything one at a time and see what makes it shut off.

 

I see you posted in the parts wanted section, looking for an AC condenser.
What was wrong with the old one? Can you list what all has been done. If you changed the condenser did it ever work since?
Did you flush the condenser? It almost sounds like you got ahold of a cond full of trash and it circulated and clogged the orifice tube. That will cause a high pressure condition on the high side and low to zero on the low side. When it sits the high and low sides will eventually equalize until you try to run it again.

More details on this will help.