Air Conditioning refresh ?

Well, my old 2001 was cooling just fine at 238,000 without my ever adding refrigerant, and my current 2010 is also doing fine at 110,000. The system is not built to leak, and 50,000 would be awfully early. Do you know of any front-end accidents?

There are some other threads on here, even active in the last few days, where you should be able to find the details on how you can tell whether you have a refrigerant charge issue or something else: what to look for in the sight glass, what temperatures you should see if you have a small thermometer to check with, how to read any diagnostic codes from the A/C computer (no special tool is needed).

There's a common thought process that goes "something is funny with my A/C ⟹ I should put some refrigerant in" but as you can learn, there's more going on, and it's wiser to find out what problem you're even having, then fix it (or even whether there's a problem, or it's just really hot/humid out and your expectations were high).

And, if there is a leak big enough for you to need refrigerant at 50,000, the smart money fixes the leak.

-Chap

 

I recommend if you need to recharge your freon, go to a shop. Don't buy those gimmick DIY bottle at a store, those don't work too well. Plus, you can ask the shop to do a leak test and have them vacuum and recharge your system with freon for you. That's a much safer and cleaner process.

 

The refrigerant is NOT Freon.

 

any auto shop that has R-134a

 

R-134a with no oil (unless it's ND-11), no dye, leak-stop, or other non-high-voltage-tested glop....

-Chap

 

In ECO Mode, the Prius AC does not cool as well; it deliberately operates in lower power mode to conserve energy. So try without ECO before going into a shop.

 

Yeah, the AC works better if you turn it on.

 

Personally I would not do this myself.

How can you tell?......hook up a gauge (under the hood typically on the a/c lines) to read the ac system lo and high side pressures.
Although first, you can also place a thermometer into the dash ac vent and record the temperature to see if the coldness is in spec. This you could do yourself.

Typically, if the pressure is low you more than likely have a leak and further diagnosis is required...perhaps including dyes and black lights.

Evacuating the system and replacing new "Freon" in the system can help the system be colder, but maybe not be a substantial coldness improvement you are looking for....a few degrees perhaps IMO.

But...reads like you need some testing and confirmations first.
If leaking you'd be chasing your tail so to say especially if trying to DIY.

Guessing on cost to diagnose one hour shop time plus some materials if not leaking.
If leaking add another hour to find the leak...and may need to visit the shop a second time after some time passes.
Recharge/ replace guessing two hours plus Freon cost and materials.

Good luck.

 

So bad I never researched this myself and entrusted the A/C mobile guy. Few months after he "Recharged" the system a loud noise started when AC is on. He removed 8g of oil but added 10g! and UV DYE!
How badly he damaged my car?