Bone head move.

[tjkj2002]

In the air! For the love of God, who cares?! There's more pollutants released from all the tree-huggers flying around the globe than from me dumping my freon into the atmosphere!

Uh...........

We all care as R134A is just a bad a R12 for depleting the ozone,oh and is highly illegal,and yes I've seen people get busted before for just venting it into the air.

You will never get the correct amount of R134A in your system using those 1lbs cans.To little R134A(and oil) will take your compressor out,to much R134A(and oil) will also kill your compressor(since it can not compress liquid).PAG oil does not mix with R134A so the correct amount of R134A is needed to push the oil through the system and back to the compressor.


Oh and finally if your 2-3oz low on R134A every year that is normal and is not a sign of a leak.Some company's do not consider it a leak unless more then 50oz is lost in 1 year.R134A's molecules are half the size of R12 and it will leak out after time with no leak actually present,it just happens and is not a sign of a leak or bad system.

 

[jnaut]

Oh and finally if your 2-3oz low on R134A every year that is normal and is not a sign of a leak.Some company's do not consider it a leak unless more then 50oz is lost in 1 year.R134A's molecules are half the size of R12 and it will leak out after time with no leak actually present,it just happens and is not a sign of a leak or bad system.

According to the data I've read, modern vehicles are much better sealed and 'natural' leakage is measured in the 'tenths of ounces' per year. Meaning that it would take a decade or so for a fully functioning, well sealed system to become even an ounce or two low.

However, modern cars have less refrigerant than the old r12 ones, so it takes less refrigerant loss to render them 'low':

All vehicles leak some refrigerant past seals and through microscopic pores in hoses. The older the vehicle, the higher the rate of seepage. Newer vehicles have better seals and barrier style hoses so typically leak less than a few tenths of an ounce of refrigerant a year. But system capacities also tend to be smaller on newer vehicles, so any loss of refrigerant will have more of an adverse effect on cooling performance.

http://www.aa1car.com/library/ac98.htm

 

[brucebotti]

This is a great site (forum) for AC issues and help. They have helped guide me through numerous AC replacements and recharges. Nice group of helpful folks (not un-like yourselves).
Bruce

http://www.ackits.com/

 

[osufans]

i guess to clarify, i too was working on an evacuated system, i.e., my rear evaporator extension had corroded out and literally had a hole in it.

and yeah, i have i believe either a 20 or 25 gallon compressor. those air operated pumps work fine, i was reading about 28" Hg in 5 mins. the directions say to leave it running for 20 minutes to completely evacuate the system. i was also using the exact same manifold gauge that was posted from HF.

as far as oil, i was told unless you are replacing components, for example evaporator coil, drier, expansion valve, etc, you didn't need to add oil. granted, i did add some previously as it also had the stop leak/dye in it. this was before my catastrophic blowout due to the rear lines.

the only thing i replaced was the rear extension, which was just two lines about 8" long.

so since i didn't buy any of the tools, already had the compressor, the only cost i had was the master seal kit ($12), and the refrigerant (~$35). like i said, i would have taken it to the shop, but there was no recovery to be done as the system was already empty.