Gen 2 ac pressure switch

Your post gives me the impression that you tried to recharge your system with an off the shelf refrigerant that's designed for cars that are not a variable pressure system, but Prius is a system based on exact required weight of refrigerant & lubricant and the pressure level changes based on what's needed.

If the leak is obvious and you can repair it and compressor is still functional then evacuate the whole system and add the correct amount of lubricant and refrigerant by weight. Easiest way is to pay someone with an expensive machine who can measure this, but if you're super smart you could figure out the weight of each can when empty and measure amount going in that way.

 

Yes, it would.

 

I'm not certain you can even do that. From Toyota, anyway, it looks like you'd just buy the entire liquid line, 88716E, which has the sight glass and pressure switch in it.



And yes, after replacement of that line, the system would definitely have to be evacuated and properly charged. The receiver drier, 88474, should be replaced at the same time.

 

134a is kind of iffy in the greenhouse department usually by the time I get to it it's already empty I can just open the system not much is happening then when I get done I fill it up just like the old days doesn't matter the Prius is electric compressor it's still pumping 134A gas so those pressures and all that have to be made to happen for the gas to work properly and make the cold that you want inverter compressors are just able to wind up and down from 100 RPMs all the way up to the and whatever 9000 with whatever in between usually inverter compressors will run themselves to death trying to pump nothing because you've given it nothing to pump or it has a little bit to pump and then it runs out once it's trying to stabilize You just have to get it close That's why you have sight glasses and all this other stuff The air conditioning people can tell you whatever they want but at the end of the day they haven't proven to me where what they're doing is the end-all be all they say it is and that's fine.

 

First, I have no direct knowledge of whether this o-ring is replaceable as a stand-alone unit or not. I've never had to mess with it. That being said, AC o-rings are a dime a dozen and you can often purchase a kit that has every AC o-ring for the entire car's HVAC system. NAPA usually has the kits for about 10 bucks. The one I bought 2 weeks ago for my wife's car had about 25 o-rings of various sizes in it.

Yes, it's correct to evacuate the AC system following repairs. For one, once vacuum is pulled, the pump should be isolated and the vacuum observed to test the system for leaks. If vacuum holds for 30 minutes, odds are pretty good you've got a leak free system. Plus, this gives you a zero starting point for adding refrigerant. If you had a very slow leak, odds are really good that you lost no lubricant. If it was a violent release of refrigerant, it's very likely oil was entrained in the cloud and you'll need to replace some.

I've heard of some people (who don't have vacuum pumps) use a $10 can of R-134a refrigerant as a test. I think they:

1. make the repair
2. charge ~half a can into the system, listen for leaks.
3. empty the system, which also removes a lot of the air that was in the system (air which is now mixed with the 1/2 can of refrigerant)
4. charge the other half of the can, listen for leaks again.
5. empty the system, which also removes more air (since the mixture that remained in the system is now mixed with the other 1/2 can)
6. Now that I think about it, a few iterations of that and there might be practically no air left in the system at all. Dang rednecks!
7. I personally have a good vacuum pump, 2 recovery pumps/tanks and a couple sets of gauges, so I've never had to try this. My recommendation would be to buy an inexpensive vacuum pump and gauges at harbor freight and practice with them.

Regardless, when it's time to fill:

1. weigh a full can and an empty can. The difference is how much refrigerant is contained in one can.
2. Most cans are now manufactured to be reusable, so you can actually disconnect them and reconnect them from the filling tool to weigh them as you add small amounts to the car from the can.
3. With the weights already known, charge the correct # of grams/ounces/etc needed for the system.
4. I have a nice electronic mail scale that measures in several different units including grams. Think I bought it at walmart.
5. Hope this helps.

 

You can also get a cheap digital kitchen scale and rest the can on it. As long as the hose from the can to your gauges is long enough and the gauges are, say, hanging from the hood and not moving around changing the weight of the hose on the can, you can watch the amount of weight leaving the can while you charge.

Bringing the system to the recommended micron level of vacuum doesn't only check for leaks; it also lowers the boiling point of any water in the system so you get that out as well, unlike a bunch of fills/releases at higher pressure. Also, even though R134a is less bad for the atmosphere than the old R12, it is still not something to go releasing cans at a time of as a way to cut corners.

 

and yet every day, thousands of people (and professional businesses) top off leaky car AC systems, household HVAC systems, commercial refrigeration units (that hold hundreds of pounds of refrigerant), industrial HVAC units (that also hold hundreds of pounds of refrigerant), just to have it leak out again. Obviously, the right thing to do is to minimize the amount of refrigerant escaping recovery, but in the big scheme of the world, a DIY can of R134a is like a drop of rain in a Cat 5 hurricane. We have a long ways to go before we get recovery where it needs to be.

 

Every drop of rain in a Cat 5 hurricane is like a drop of rain.

The big scheme of the world has a lot of DIYers in it, each with a DIY can of R134a, and maybe reading something like PriusChat for info on what to do with it.

Kind of what Immanuel Kant was getting at.

 

Pressure switch I see is welded on in the making of that high line. You can see the world I don't know why it has flats on it maybe they're welding in the aluminum ones that used to have the threads on them have no idea but you won't screw this one out and when you do you'll be twisting the aluminum and ruining it and need the whole high side line with the switch like Chapman said earlier I went out and looked at my Gen too there is no way that that part is coming off that whole block is permanent