I charged my A/C system yesterday from an empty system(lines were removed). The clutch engaged and it started charging and blowing cold. After the bottle finished it was right were it needed to be on the gauge and blowing ice cold. Then the fan cuts off and the clutch disengages then starts blowing luke warm air. It kicks back on for a couple seconds and when the clutch engages it makes a grinding noise for a second and cuts off. It does this over and over. If I turn off the ac for a min and then cut it back on it will run for a few min blowing ice cold then it will do the same thing as mentioned above. Is this a clutch issue or a compressor issue? I need to get this figured out cause its brutal driving with no ac in 100 deg weather. Thanks!

 

OK, so let me get this straight.....

you discharged your system.... Had the AC lines disconnected...

then put it all back together.

Then you went down to the hardware store and picked up one of those "R134a cool-it" kits or the like, and charged up the system till the gauge on the kit said it was "good" aka "in the green"

Then you started it up? Is this correct? cause if so....



You missed a very KEY step... you didn't vacuum out the system. Therefore the system wasn't "empty" it was full of humid air (AKA water droplets in the air). So, when you "charged" the system, you just mixed the R134a with water. This water turned to ICE when the R134a evaporated, the ice collects, and either plugs up your expansion tube causing the pressure so sky rocket, or worse, the water/ice to collect in your compressor.

Hopefully, you didn't blow your compressor up, but it sounds like you did... Time to take it to an AC shop and pay a fortune to have it fixed...

 

I did this same little scenario, I just picked up another low mileage compressor for $60.

Do we really need a vacuum pump or is there a cheaper way to do this?

 

Yes, you need a vacuum pump, and yes, you need to hold vacuum for at least 15 minutes

I picked up my vacuum pump off of ebay for like $80 and use it quite a bit. (not just for AC work)

 

If you test the lead from the ECU to the AC relay it will tell you if the ECU is trying to turn the clutch on and the clutch just isn't cooperating or if the ECU is seeing an issue and not allowing the compressor to run such as too high a pressure or temp in the lines.

 

I heard if water gets in the system it could mess up the dyrer

 

It was too full. I got a family member that does this sort of work and finally got intouch with him. We talked about it, he captured some of the coolant out of the system and it worked perfect. I am gonna take it back over there today to have him just redo the whole thing. Thanks for the advice and replies. Much appreciated.