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AC Working, gauges not moving

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Technical Discussion' started by sascha, Aug 13, 2017.

  1. sascha

    sascha Junior Member

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    So I have been looking around to find solutions and couldn't so I thought I might ask. Initially I was having blower issues, as in the air would blow hard out of the vents and then after a while it would seem to just dribble out of the vents. I didn't pay much mind to it and thought I would deal with it later but then my wife went on a 3 hr road trip with it and thought this was a big deal and made the problem worse by going to autozone and buying an 18oz can of Freon with the stupid gauge on it (those things should be outlawed), and yes she dumped the whole can in there.

    So today I hooked up the manifold gauges on it and at first it was reading high on the low pressure side (around 55ish) and normal on the high pressure side, I took out some of the Freon to relieve the excess she put in, and as I was doing that the gauges went dead and just showed both high and low at 40psi. Yes normally this would indicate that the compressor is dead but it was still blowing cold air and after leaving it on for about 15 minutes the puddle of water and the cold air coming out of the vents would seem to say otherwise.

    On another note (I know my wife overcharging the system added another variable to the whole thing so who knows now), the vents were blowing on the window side vents and then nothing out of the two middle ones. So I turned on the heater to see if it was a blower issue and then all four started blowing hard again, so I turned it back down to max AC and boom all four vents were blowing sweet cold air. Not sure what any of that means but some troubleshooting ideas would be much appreciated.
     
  2. edthefox5

    edthefox5 Senior Member

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    Usually when the blower motor fails it's pretty intermittent. Mine failed at
    80k miles and worked on and off for a while.

    The compressor is not cheap in this car. Take it to an ac shop and let them charge it up correctly, Buy an oem blower motor and throw it in.
    Search my old posts I did a write up on replacing the blower. It's not bad you just have to lay under the glove compartment for a while,
     
  3. Beachbummm

    Beachbummm Senior Member

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    I hope you used the correct Freon and oil , there is a special kind for hybrids R12 Refrigerant Oil specifically forumlated for Hybrid A/C systems NAPA 7653512 | eBay
     
  4. sascha

    sascha Junior Member

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    Ya I replaced the blower motor last summer, pretty easy job. As for the Freon type, I read about that and I have no clue what she threw in there, but I can tell you it wasn't toyota specific if it came from autozone. I'm thinking it was just a plain can of R-134a.

    I'll check again tonight to see if the gauge readings start moving again, but for right now its blowing cold and strong. hopefully all ends well, but it just confuses me how the pressure on the manifold gauges were constant on both high and low sides but the compressor was engaged and working. Brand new gauges too so we can rule that out.
     
  5. Beachbummm

    Beachbummm Senior Member

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    I assume if you don't flush the wrong stuff out you can kiss your compressor goodbye, if its not fried already
     
  6. greasemonkey007

    greasemonkey007 Active Member

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    If only freon was added, no wrong oil was added. It's possible the compressor had cycled off and the air still felt cold.