AC car recharge kit
If your car’s air conditioning is blowing warm instead of cool, it may be low on refrigerant. But how much does your car need to get the job done? If you buy too little or too much, your air conditioning system won’t work. Fortunately, it’s easy to determine what type of refrigerant your car needs to make sure you get the right amount. The easiest way is to find the information in your owner’s manual. You’ll probably also find this info on a sticker on the front frame of your engine compartment or inside the hood.
The type of refrigerant used in your car ac recharge kit system will be listed there, along with the corresponding capacity. If you can’t find the info in your manual, A/C Pro has a handy spec database that lets you enter your car’s year, make and model to find the correct refrigerant type for your vehicle.
A/C systems usually use either R-134a or the newer and more environmentally friendly option, R-1234yf. The system can be recharged with one of these, but mixing refrigerant types is never a good idea and could damage the system. Most A/C recharge kits will come with the correct type of refrigerant for your vehicle as well as an A/C service hose, an A/C manifold gauge and a can of refrigerant recharger. Some will also include a can of A/C dye to help you identify where the old refrigerant was leaking from.
Can I use an AC car recharge kit if my car’s AC compressor is noisy?
To perform the a/c recharge, you’ll need to connect the manifold gauge hoses to the service ports on your car’s A/C compressor (the lower pressure side is blue and marked 0 – 220 psi; the upper pressure side is red and marked 0 – 500 psi). Next, disconnect the empty can from its service hose valve and screw the new can’s valve onto the hose. Make sure you have a partner when performing this step. One of you will need to start the engine, rev it to 1500 rpm and check the pressure on both gauges to ensure your compressor is up to the task of handling the refrigerant flow.
Once the refrigerant is in the compressor, it’ll move through the evaporator coils in your car’s dashboard and absorb heat from the air. It will then head back to the receiver/drier, where it’ll get recompressed into liquid form. From there, it’ll move to the expansion tube and then the vacuum pump, which will draw vacuum and create negative pressure within the system. This negative pressure pulls the refrigerant back to the compressor, where it’ll repeat the process.
It’s possible that your air conditioning might be leaking refrigerant through small holes in the various components in your A/C system, which is why it’s so important to have a certified mechanic clean out your entire AC system and refill it with fresh refrigerant. Recharging your A/C without first cleaning the system can leave you with low or even no pressure and will cause damage to the compressor.
