My A/C quit (really, sweating is a good thing...)

My A/C has been adequate but unimpressive since I bought the car - chalk it up to a slow leak and "they all do that" Miata A/C. I've been able to keep it going with a little extra hit of 134 each spring (not even a full can/year). That plan has worked fine so far, but the A/C finally crapped the bed this weekend. It got really weak about a week ago, so I stopped at VatoZone for a can of 134 and a cheater hose. Topped it off in the parking lot and I was back to ice-cold in 5 minutes. That went away fairly quickly, and by Saturday morning it was completely dead again. Went to my buddy's house and we pulled a vacuum on the system - it held for about a minute (if that). Our guess is a bad o-ring (since it's been mostly working for the last 3 years), so I figure I'm going to either A) replace all the o-rings, see if it holds a vacuum, then recharge the system; or B) drive with the top down, work on my tan, and cheap out till next spring.

In the meantime, I figure now is as good a time as any to sweat out any and all toxins that might be circulating in my system.

Are there any common problem areas/leaks I should be looking for in the A/C system?

Any signs of leaks? (On the A/C system)

The oil in the A/C system will sometimes make a guest appearance at the leak.

One common spot is the o-rings on the top of the compressor.

I didn't see any oil residue at the line junctions from the firewall up to the condenser, but I didn't get down and look at the compressor - thanks for the heads up! My buddy has a CSI kit that we'll try sometime this week.

You should stop by Executive Imports since you have the connection there. They did a great job getting my Civic's AC cold (of course it wasn't free!!).

Use a black light and check the entire AC system. The oil will glow under ultraviolet.

This trick did not work on my truck. Turned out it was leaking around the compressor shaft. The guy at Technicare Auto Specialists in Dallas has a chemical sniffer that found the leak. He fixed it up and has had no problems since.

Technicare Auto Specialists
11054 Shady Trl
Dallas, TX 75229
(214) 352-0499
http://www.technicareauto.com/

It's easy to overcharge an R134 system by topping it off that way. Hopefully it is just an o ring and not your compressor. Good thing about 134 is you can buy the leak detector kits with the UV dye in them and find your leak with a black light. First place I'd look would be your high and low pressure lines at the firewall, then I'd look closely at the compressor and hopefully you won't see little green glowing lines on it.

Plus, once you have a black light, then you can install it inside your home and get one of those cool velvet posters.

Were you working on the car recently? My o-ring going to the compressor gave just after I replaced by crank pulley, so I probably bumped the line when I was working and caused the failure.

The condenser core is prone to pin holes. It sits unprotected without a grill and frequently gets smacked by rocks and road debris. Easy to replace. $80 at all imports salveage, $160 new at O'reily or Autozone. use the dye to check or look for oil stains against the radiator front.

I'm going on two seasons with no AC now. I bought a couple of cans of R12 off of ebay right before summer this year and charged it up only to discover that the evaporator core appears to be leaking (I have an electronic leak detector left over from a stint as a tech). So far, the 20 minutes of sweating on the drive home have not provided ample enough discomfort to get me motivated to go out and sweat for who knows how many hours in the driveway to get the evap out and replaced.

Most of what I've read on the various forums about AC on NAs points to the o-rings on top of the compressor as a major source of problems. If only such was the case with mine.

Mornings are pretty nice though. :-)

Collision parts Express has the condensor coils for $109 if you need one. They are located off of Regal Row and Irving Blvd. AKA the Parts Channel.

Were those the R-12 cans that Exploded?

Thanks for all the info! I'll check it out further with UV dye and post an update.

One more question: If I indeed overfilled the system with my cheater hose addition... would that likely result in a popped o-ring somewhere, or is there a chance that I've hosed the compressor?

You can toast a compressor that way, let's hope its just an o ring.

Dang... well, fingers crossed for o-rings.

There is another alturnative.

Linkie:

http://www.classicaire.com/images/Rushmore.JPG

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Radio-Active

There is another alturnative.

Linkie:

http://www.classicaire.com/images/Rushmore.JPG

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Heh...that looks like something that should say ACME on the side of it. ;)

Hmmmmm. The steering wheel of that car seems to be on the left side which is the right side for the U.S.

So I wonder why the presidents are reversed. Looks like George had a bit too much taken off the top too.