2007 Air Conditioning Problem

I bought my 2007 with almost 100K miles on it back in November. It's been a great car, and I had various maintenance done to it and did some myself. Looks like there's a problem with the A/C -- it's just not cooling the air. Yesterday was the first day in the sixties here in NJ, and the A/C just wasn't what an A/C is supposed to do.

The car was maintained at a dealership exclusively. Here's the entry about the A/C:

05/29/2012 93,478 AIR COND. INSPECT

I called the dealer and asked exactly what they did, and they told me they inspected and recharged the system. So this was a little less than a year ago, and my guess is that it wasn't pumping cold air then, either.

From some searches on the forum, it looks like it's gonna cost me around $750 to replace the unit. I know A/Cs don't last forever -- I had to get my Honda Civic's unit replaced when it hit 90K -- but here are my questions:

1) Is there something easy I can check? I'm not a gearhead, but I have replaced the headlights and installed XM on this car myself.

2) Sounds like the dealer will charge about $250 to recharge the system. Is this worth doing if there's a leak and I gotta do this every year? My plan is to keep this car for at least another 100K miles.

3) I have a local mechanic I trust, but is this something that I should take to the dealer instead if I want the A/C replaced?

Thanks!

- Sung

 

OK -- looks like I found the answer myself for #1:

Air conditioning not blowing cold air... | PriusChat

Thank you, Google.

 

Hi -- yeah, the A/C button is pushed, the yellow line is underneath. I did as the previous post suggested, opened all the doors, LO temp, HIGH fan, and checked the site glass. There was nothing happening there for about a minute, and then there were some bubbles, and then pure liquid coursed through it. It's 54 degrees outside, and the air that was being pumped felt colder than that, but honestly, I don't know. I'm gonna have to take a thermometer and stick it on the vent to make sure.

The metal tube that runs fro the sight glass to what I imagine is the A/C compressor felt cold to me, too. Maybe I need a topping off of the coolant? But why would I need to do that when it was done a year ago? This indicates a leak, doesn't it?

- Sung

 

Thanks, folks. I drove it today with the recirc on and the sun shining in, and it really didn't get any colder.

How do you know if the refrigerant is low? Looking at the sight glass, there's liquid in there, but how do you determine the level?

 

Hey folks,

Just wanted to give you an update. Went to the dealer this morning - the refrigerant was low, so they flushed and filled and added a dye to check for leaks. A/C is as cold as anything now, so it was indeed the freon. I'll return in a week to see if they can find the leak.

Cost about $200. Is this something I could've taken to my mechanic instead? I'm someone who never went back to the dealer for anything in the past with my other cars, but considering the Prius's specialty, I'm a little leery of taking it to anybody else.

- Sung