AC Recharge Advice

I suspect you could check for leakage yourself. Don't you just need a blacklight?

moto g power ?

 

If you have TIS software or something similar you should be able to see the speed of your AC compressor You need to monitor that just to see that you're not getting into the running into Oblivion mode or the thing tries to pump nothing and it'll run 7,000 RPM or something crazy I don't know if TIS will code or orange up the over speed of the compressor or not If there's a if it can monitor it I would think it would let you know if it was over speeding when you run a health check it would turn that section orange or something maybe not.? Generally on a house unit inverter unit I can tell by listening to it it's just a little winding noise but the faster that winding noise frequency goes up the faster the compressor is running.

 

That's a contradiction.

You can't lose it unless there is a leak.

Some systems are freakishly tight and lose almost nothing over decades. But for many of us, we eventually get a stone chip in the condenser or a perished o-ring at one of the plumbing unions or (tremble in fear) an evaporator leak, and then you've got no gas left in the system.

That's where the dye helps. Since the only way out is... out, you would next need to look over all of the hard lines, soft hoses, condenser and evaporator drain area to find traces of dye stain. This will jump right out with an ultraviolet lamp to flouresce the dye.

Then you know where the leak is. Make the leak go away, then if you are confident you've done it, take it to a pro AC shop. Tell them what you've done. They should hook it up to a vacuum to prove that it fixed the leak, and this also removes remaining air and water contamination in the lines.

After pulling a hard vacuum, they can charge it with oil and refrigerant gas. Most pro AC shops realize that there are special requirements* for recharging hybrid car AC. Doublecheck to be safe.

*In a nutshell, hybrid AC and "everything else" AC each need their own kinds of oil, and the two types are incompatible so the shops have to maintain two sets of tools to prevent cross-contamination.

 

Obviously there's no need to go back if the AC continues to work normally...

 

If there's a slow leak, you may have some time before you absolutely need to go back.

Just to be clear- when you have a leak in the system, you're risking the compressor. The system will force the compressor to work harder and harder to make up for lost gas, until the thing breaks itself. Then it is a much more expensive fix.

If the leak is super slow and you're planning to get rid of the car soon? Just let it ride.

If you want to keep the car a while, you should deal with it sooner.

 

Well the general theory is that if it got out, there's a leak. If there's a leak, you find it with dye. Once the dye leaks out, you need to actually perform the search before it washes off/fades away, otherwise there was no point in finding the leak.

Because the refrigerant is a greenhouse gas, some places have laws about not refilling a system until it is thought to be actually fixed. Not sure what Ottawa has you locked into there.

EDIT: adding:

Keep in mind, you can just go to nearly any generic automotive AC shop. The Toyota dealer is an expensive choice.

 

Don't tell that to our old 2008 Corolla who blows SUPER cold air, still, and hasn't had a single A/C recharge service!!

 

That was probably good advice in 2003, but this website has been here a long time and still gives those answers even though things have changed.

Lots of shops know how to deal with hybrid AC now.

I think that's a great plan of action.

I'm impressed! That would wreck most modern Japanese-car systems after the 2nd or 3rd year.