03 prius airconditioner makes loud leaking sound

[w2co]

I recently ran the 03 on a hot day and decided to turn on the air conditioner. We hardly use the air cond. but only the hottest days. It was last used maybe a month ago, but it has worked great for many years. The first time it only blew warm air for a while so I turned it off a few minutes. then when switched on again it made this rather loud leaking sound like the gas was escaping somewhere in the drivers side dash or firewall area. So I immediately turned it off and have not looked at it since. Does anyone have any ideas where to look for the leak? And it will probably have to be recharged again but only after the leak is fixed. Hoses? I don't think it's the compressor because it had pressure. Ideas?

[bwilson4web]

Originally Posted by w2co

. . . The first time it only blew warm air for a while so I turned it off a few minutes. then when switched on again it made this rather loud leaking sound like the gas was escaping somewhere in the drivers side dash or firewall area. So I immediately turned it off and have not looked at it since.

Does anyone have any ideas where to look for the leak? And it will probably have to be recharged again but only after the leak is fixed. Hoses? I don't think it's the compressor because it had pressure. Ideas?

I forgot to include air conditioner as something I try not to work on.

A leak can happen anywhere but in the past, a leak just causes the freon to leak out ... drain it down.

Once the freon is gone, it will have to be recharged. The literature discusses purging and running a vacuum to get any humid air out of the system. Any humidity can freeze in the expansion valve.

Is it possible the noise came from the compressor?

What I would do is with the A/C off, cycle the cabin to different speeds to make sure they aren't losing a bearing. Fixing a bad fan is less bad but it has to be fixed for winter driving.

Then with the temperature set to the coldest setting hit the A/C button and see if the sound changes. A compressor noise will follow the A/C button setting. We had a compressor fail before and it made a squealing noise at the belt. But I've pretty well left air conditioning work to the experts with the right tools. For example, they have sensitive leak detectors fault isolate quickly.

Bob Wilson

[w2co]

Hi Bob, thanks for the reply. No it's not the fan at all. The fan works great and I believe it's used for the heater as well. No problems with that, and I don't think it's the compressor which is located in the lower passenger (right) side front corner and runs with the serpentine belt on the engine. No the loud leaking noise came from the left side firewall/dash area. I looked up in there and didn't see any evidence of leakage anywhere as best as I could see. Also looked behind the inv. towards the dash from the front, there's a small space back there and I can see both metal pipes for the system, but cannot see those pipes from inside the dash. I can turn the fan on any speed and it runs good, it's only when you hit the AC button. And no it's not a sqealing sound like the compressor, it's a gas leaking sound. Will have to turn it on again while looking and maybe see where the leak is. The funny thing is that time I turned it on it had just warm air for 3mins before I turned it off. Then after a couple mins. the next time I turned it (AC button) on was the loud leak sound. Yeah here I was getting ready for all the other stuff and then this comes along. Oh well -what do you expect from an 8yr old car. I'm no air conditioner expert either..but I haven't given up yet either.