Oh dear! A/C blowing warm air - where's the cold?

That’s a good one that’s a mystery

if you didn’t hear a hissing sound while you were attempting to put it in I’m assuming you’re using the can with the little gauge?.

because if you have a gauge on the can and opened it up the pressure should have read on the gauge.

either it wasn’t connected correctly or the can was never open or nothing will ever win in your car.

because if her refrigerant goes in and there’s no pressure there be such a large hole you would hear a hissing sound

and there’s only about 3 ounces of oil in the whole entire system that’s distributed through the whole entire system.

So if in if by some miracle all 3 ounces was in one little tiny location and there was a hole in that location he wouldn’t have much of a stream oil for 3 ounces of oil.

What’s the AC was mechanically sound and all the electronics are functioning. As soon as you exceed roughly 42 to 44 psi the switch would allow the system to send a signal to engage the compressor what you would hear.

so did you never hear that compressor try to engage ?

 

How often do people trying to fix their Prius AC end up causing further damage by adding refrigerant based on pressure when it's a variable pressure system?

I mean, you taught me it's based on total weight of refrigerant measured in an expensive machine, not pressure; and clearly too much refrigerant blows out a compressor, right? So I'm wondering how often? As in I've yet to see a discussion thread like this where the OP says they added refrigerant from the store and fixed it? Is that possible sometimes?

 

The most common is overcharge without damaging the compressor it hits 440 psi and they complain the AC kicks off and stops working. That’s the most common result.

it’s Verrible speed But if the person is attempting to recharge it on a cold day in at the same time they’re trying to achieve some certain pressure they were told by some imaginary fairytale supposedly technician AK backyard DYI professional.

for example if it was 68° outside I could keep adding refrigerant until I hit 150 psi if that’s what I was told I need to achieve.

but at this point it would be grossly overcharged. It would work perfectly because it’s so cold outside. But now the oil ratio to refrigerant ratio is much lower see you over deleted the oil. Over a long period of time at lower temperature operation it would not hit 440 psi just keep running the compressor at higher pressures on warmer days with less oil to the bearings slow death.

The other scenario if they recharged it on that cool day to 150 PSI but did not use the AC until they hit a hot day at 90°F
Now that they’re grossly overcharged when they turn on the air conditioning within seconds or minutes it will go right up to 440 psi kicking out the safety keep repeating this pattern every time it cool down and then re-pressurize and then cause pressure the air conditioning in turning off and on.
I have video recordings of this so you can see and hear what happens with just two or three extra ounces.

other scenario when the customer recharge the system when it has lost its refrigerant charge down to zero for a long period of time. Depending on the size of the leak every time the car gets Hot all the line interior get hot what gas and air is inside expands in exits the leak. Every time the car shut off at night and get a cold the air inside contracts sucking in fresh outside ambient air that is leading with moisture saturating the oil with water. What keeps repeating this for weeks or months until the customer gets around to recharge.

Customer just throws refrigerant on top of the air in the moisture and he could get it working and it will blow cold. For a long period of time the air in the moisture combine with the refrigerant to make an asset that slowly its way at all the aluminum components from the inside out. This is not normal oil it’s hydroscopic and it breaks down in the presence of moisture in the air becoming acidic and making it not have the ability to lubricate the bearings over a long period of time causing slow compressor death.
Can cause expansion valve to stick in a slightly closed position this would cause lack of refrigerant flow still getting cool but not cold will have high superheat mean there’s no cooling back to the compressor and reduced oil flow. This condition will also cause a long slow death for the compressor over a long period of time

In all the above conditions scenarios either do it yourself person or an automotive shop who is a little cans does not know that they are the one responsible for Burning up the compressor one or two years later.

call isn’t it so nice that a shop can completely deny they have anything or any responsibility for their actions due to ignorance.

and then they get to charge the customer to replace the compressor later on and make more money.

customers considered a revolving ATM machine.

 

Look almost every car I buy. At some point has had to have the freon topped off initially so while I drive the car and fool around with other stuff it's reasonably cold and many of them at some point I have to evacuate all the gas and then real normal cars I usually replace the receiver dryer. And then take my little silly vacuum pump and pull a vacuum on the system with gauges on it closed down or opened on the low side to get neg . Close it all up let it sit about an hour or however long I'm gone come back still see negative and nothing's moved and proceed the gas the car up. With our little Toyotas these things generally look on your under hood sticker hold 1.4 lb of freon or gas or whatever you're putting in there so that tells you about 116 oz can and a little more out of another one. You don't try to squeeze the other 6/10 of the other can in just because you paid for it that's not how this works. And these electric inverter things if you overcharge these suckers look right under your compressor you will start seeing oil and gas possibly trying to come out of a blow off valve or something down there I've seen it on my '09 I was slightly overcharged actually kind of on purpose for this discussion about 6 months ago. I back the charge off by my gauges and my high and low side pressures and have been ice cold and perfectly charged ever since I haven't looked on the bottom of the Prius AC to see if there's a physical blow off valve or whether I just overcharged it enough to blow through the line o rings I'm not sure but it doesn't leak or do anything that I can tell when it makes gobs of cold air the compressor sounds pretty normal to me for an inverter electric compressor it's not whining and trying to kill itself it sounds the same most of the day when I first turn it on and it's real hot you can tell it's running a little harder but in no means does it sound like a regular belt driven compressor.