Our Disclaimer: IROCZONE.com, its affiliates, owners and members, claim no responsibility of damage to your AC system or any other component of your vehicle as a result of using the following documentation. By proceeding, you agree that there may be some error in documentation and you will assume all risks from here on out. We recommend that if any AC work is to be done, that your vehicle should be taken to a local repair shop. These instructions are for educational purposes to show what is involved in retrofitting an AC system correctly, versus one of those cheap kits you buy at Wal*Mart that don't work worth a dime.
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Now on with some troubleshooting and additional tips.
The following documentation is in very DRAFT mode! If you have any questions, please do not e-mail us. We will post updates as we keep working on this project. We suggest you visit http://www.ackits.com and go to their message board. You can also visit http://www.aircondition.com and browse through their archives of messages and read, read, read to get a good feel of what's involved and hopefully answer any questions you have. These instructions are based on the fact that you have some knowledge of auto AC and can go from these. Once this documentation progresses, we will adapt it with more detailed instructions and pictures to help those who are less knowledgeable than others.
Thanks to www.air-tique.com for help on these useful troubleshooting tips!
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High Side too Low
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What do to
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High Side too High
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What do to
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Low Side too Low
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What do to
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Low Side too High
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What do to
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Compressor Not Working
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What do to
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Evaporator Not Cooling
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What do to
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Frozen Evaporator Coil
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What do to
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Temperature/Pressure Chart
Static pressure (A/C not running, system equalized)
Determining if there is air in the system. Hopefully, if you followed our instructions correctly and pulled proper vacuum, you should have very little air in the system. If you feel there is too much air in the system, you can check by hooking up your gauges to your system and measuring the static pressures once the system has equalized (both low and high side the same). Record the outside (or ambient) temperature and follow the chart below. If you are at or close the what the pressures should be, you have no or very little air in the system. If you are higher than what is stated in the chart, you have air in the system. Keep in mind. An engine compartment, even if it's not running, may be hotter than the outside temp if it has been sitting out in the sun for a period of time. Best thing to do is put a thermometer in the engine compartment and measure the immediate temperature of the surrounding area.
How do you remove air? Well. Luckily, our systems provide a way to accomplish this somewhat by positioning the low side valve in a location that is the highest point of the entire system. If any air is in the system, it will usually reside on top of the refrigerant (as refrigerant is a heavier gas). With this said, any significant amount of air would most likely be sitting on the top part of the accumulator. You can release the air buy pushing in on the valve on the low side port. This will, most likely, release some refrigerant so be very careful! Push in on the valve about half way for 1 to 2 seconds. If any air is in that area, this would help remove it. Keep in mind. It is IMPOSSIBLE to remove 100% of the air in the system. Only perform this procedure if you have a significant amount of air in the system. You can repeat the procedure after running the system again and let it equalize to trap more air in the accumulator to remove. Remember, the more "air" you release, chances are, you could run low on refrigerant and may need a top-off.
Of course, the correct way would be to hook up your equipment and recover the gas with the air. Most high-end recovery systems will separate the air from the refrigerant. Hopefully, you won't have to worry about this procedure as you followed our instructions to the T!
| Degrees Fahrenheit | R-134a Pressure (PSIG) | R-12 Pressure (PSIG) |
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| -30 °F | 9.8 in. Hg. | 5.5 in. Hg. |
| -20 °F | 3.7 in. Hg. | 0.6 in. Hg. |
| -10 °F | 1.9 | 4.5 |
| 0 °F | 6.5 | 9.2 |
| 10 °F | 12.0 | 14.6 |
| 20 °F | 18.4 | 21.0 |
| 24 °F | 21.4 | 23.9 |
| 25 °F | 22.1 | 24.6 |
| 26 °F | 22.9 | 25.3 |
| 28 °F | 24.5 | 26.9 |
| 30 °F | 26.1 | 28.5 |
| 40 °F | 35.0 | 37.0 |
| 50 °F | 45.3 | 46.7 |
| 60 °F | 57.3 | 57.7 |
| 70 °F | 70.9 | 70.2 |
| 80 °F | 86.4 | 84.2 |
| 90 °F | 103.9 | 99.8 |
| 100 °F | 123.6 | 117.2 |
| 110 °F | 145.6 | 136.4 |
| 120 °F | 170.3 | 157.7 |
| 130 °F | 197.6 | 181.1 |
| 140 °F | 227.9 | 206.6 |
| 150 °F | 261.4 | 234.6 |
| 160 °F | 298.4 | 265.1 |
| 170 °F | 338 | 298 |
| inch Hg. Figures are Vacuum / All Others are PSIG | ||
IMPORTANT! Static pressure readings will NOT tell you if you are low or high on refrigerant! Take two 30 lbs. cylinders for example. One has 10 lbs. of R-134a and the other has 20 lbs. of R-134. The pressure of both tanks WILL BE THE SAME! Gas will expand into a liquid when there is room, thus, providing the same amount of pressure whether it's 10 lbs. or 20 lbs. Obviously, if the gas has more than enough room to expand (very low), the pressures will then begin to drop.
Hopefully, this documentation was helpful. If you need to go back to any of the other pages, choose from the links below.
[Page 1] - Tools, Parts and Supplies you need to get started
[Page 2] - Performing the R134a retrofit
Allan Reinike
If you would like to contribute your projects to IROCZone.com, e-mail us at info@iroczone.com!