1. Attachments are working again! Check out this thread for more details and to report any other bugs.

How Prius owners unknowingly kill their electric compressor

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Care, Maintenance and Troubleshooting' started by lech auto air conditionin, Feb 27, 2020.

  1. lech auto air conditionin

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2011
    830
    601
    260
    Location:
    san francisco
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius c
    Model:
    Two
    It’s spring time again the sun is coming out and more compressors are burning up before the summer gets here. And there’s one main cause that will always happen sooner or later. “ The refrigerant naturally runs slow slowly over time“.


    like the majority of burnt out electric compressors when I recover the refrigerant it only has 240 g when it should have 480 g. Electric Compressors don’t like to run hot. Electric compressors don’t like to run without oil.
    Above is the link to my YouTube where I capture one of the sounds better made by a dying compressor.
     
    SFO likes this.
  2. Dxta

    Dxta Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2016
    1,932
    766
    0
    Location:
    Lagos
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Its being a long time dude! I pretty much need more of your videos or any material you think could help in fixing hybrid compressors. Nice videos you've got here.
     
  3. lech auto air conditionin

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2011
    830
    601
    260
    Location:
    san francisco
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius c
    Model:
    Two
    I’ve been trying to put out as many as I can on my YouTube channel no editing no script just raw video I even leave my mistakes in the videos. no time for editing too much work.
    I’m kind of a Prius fan are you on a Prius my ex-wife owns a Prius my kids on a Prius and I feel sorry for customers who own Prius and go into shops that are not qualified or knowledgeable to work on them and cause more damage.
     
    SFO and Dxta like this.
  4. Dxta

    Dxta Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2016
    1,932
    766
    0
    Location:
    Lagos
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    II
    In that video, you talked about disconnecting the port from the compressor, and covering the disconnected pipe with a white rug, and blowing against the rag. If it cones out clean with no particles, replaced the compressor. But if it comes out with particles on the rag, then the condenser,and perhaps the drier too should be replaced. In my view, don you think if the rag cones out with particles after blowing through the pipe, the compressor should be replaced instead of the condenser first? I think both parts should be replaced.

    PS: the sound of the compressor sounds as the barking sound of a failing/failed ABS actuator pump.

    Nice job you're doing.
     
    SFO likes this.
  5. lech auto air conditionin

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2011
    830
    601
    260
    Location:
    san francisco
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius c
    Model:
    Two
    Sounds like I wasn’t listening to myself talking and miss spoke. And since I do not do editing it stays in the video sorry about that.
    Here’s how it goes you disconnect the inlet and outlet lines to the condenser. I hate using shop air but that’s all what shops have even if they do air conditioning and they should have dry nitrogen tank they do not this is reality whether they’re just a knowledgeable or just cheap either way shop air is what gets used. You blow backwards from the bottom of the condenser through the condenser and out the top port of the condenser into a white rag. If the rag comes out clean with no particles no black oil and your compressor is not working then you usually could get away with just replacing the compressor.
    On the other hand if it comes with little metal particles and possibly a dark oil not only will you be replacing the compressor you will also be replacing the condenser and the expansion valve and flushing out and cleaning all the lines and hoses.
    Remember this it’s also important even if you had a clean condenser when a compressor failed to work always replace the dryer sock inside the condenser when you open your air conditioning system to the atmosphere. It has a desiccant material that has a limited lifetime anyway also once exposed to the air it completely saturated south with the moisture that it absorbs straight out of the atmosphere saturating the desiccant making it no good.
     
    SFO likes this.
  6. Dxta

    Dxta Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2016
    1,932
    766
    0
    Location:
    Lagos
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Thanks for the corrections. Was kinda confused about that that's y I brought that up.
     
  7. pasadena_commut

    pasadena_commut Senior Member

    Joined:
    May 2, 2019
    1,329
    404
    0
    Location:
    Southern California
    Vehicle:
    2007 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    Isn't shop compressed air typically a filthy oily mess? I thought the Prius A/C was incredibly finicky about no oil and super clean. Seems like blowing shop air through any part of the A/C would just cause it to fail from the contaminants at some later time.
     
  8. Dxta

    Dxta Senior Member

    Joined:
    Nov 7, 2016
    1,932
    766
    0
    Location:
    Lagos
    Vehicle:
    2008 Prius
    Model:
    II
    Heres
    Here's what I'm thinking:
    As long as you're still going to vacuum the whole system, don't you think even using the shop air, would not necessary caused problems?
    Pls correct me if I'm wrong with my assertions.
     
  9. lech auto air conditionin

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2011
    830
    601
    260
    Location:
    san francisco
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius c
    Model:
    Two
    Yes shop air is about the worst thing you could use contains a lot of moisture and some sharp air contains a lot of oil which is usually mineral oil from the compressor. But like I said I was describing the reality of the truth because most shops don’t even know what they don’t know. And when you tell them you have to spend another couple hundred dollars for a nitrogen tank and some regulators they always seem to try to use and find the cheapest way around that and that’s using shop air.
    There are quite a few shops with welding equipment if you have a meg welder or a Tigue welder argon is also an excellent gas to use for pressurizing and blowing things out when you don’t want moisture.
    Nitrogen is to to go gas it’s cheap and plentiful everywhere in every state in every city in every town there’s no reason for any Shop not to have nitrogen tank.
    If you’ve seen my videos I always have nitrogen tanks I have 3 to 4 at any one time 80 cubic foot tanks 60 ft.² foot tanks and 40 ft.² foot tanks.
    But look at it this way the worst thing that can happen the shop doesn’t even know that they were supposed to change the condenser and they wanted to know they stumbled upon the easiest cheapest way to at least tell if a condenser is plugged up with metal debris and they throw a new compressor on and burn up the new compressor in a short time because they did not know the condenser was partially plugged with metal flakes.
    The other option use dirty wet sharp compressed air and blow it out backwards to see if it’s clean or dirty and not gas at the expense of a extremely expensive compressor.
     
  10. lech auto air conditionin

    Joined:
    Sep 5, 2011
    830
    601
    260
    Location:
    san francisco
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius c
    Model:
    Two
    yep you are 100% correct compared to what the outcome will be if there’s metal flakes inside a dirty condenser I’d rather have the possibility of a little water in my condenser then having metal flakes in my condenser.
    At least you will be replacing the dryer sock at bare minimum so that will give you new desiccant material to help absorb moisture. Unfortunately probably only one out of every thousand air conditioning shops have a micron gauge to absolutely tell if there’s still moisture in the system. The other 99% of the shops rely on time never knowing whether or not they remove the moisture and never knowing if their vacuum pump is even capable of pulling down to well below 500 µm and vacuum.
    Then there’s the shops who ask what the hell is a micron a vacuum.
     
    Dxta likes this.