AC Problem

[98viperGTS]

I took out the Viper today and drove it over to a friends house. I used the AC and it seemed fine. When I was over at his house the viper sat outside for about 1-2 hours in the 95 degree heat. I hop in and it was hot so I start it up and turn the AC on and start to drive, at this point the AC is fine. About a mile or 2 down the road the AC feels like I have just the blower on and cabin temp air, not cold at all. Is there a fuse or something that went?

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[Ulysses]

Check to see if you still have refrigerant. If you do,is there bubbles? If no bubbles, is the refrigerant moving?

 

[ArlyDude]

AC? Who needs AC? What a waste of weight. Ha, I don't have it, but the car came that way...sometimes I wish I did. At least I save gas money!

 

[98viperGTS]

I know where to look but what am I looking for. The reason I ask if it is full it will lokk like it is empty, will it not. If there are bubbles what does that mean?

 

[viperdude118]

I just went through the same thing yesterday on my 01 RT/10. Not really nice and cool air coming from vents when AC was on.

Researhed what to do on here and went out and saw that I had complete bubbles in the window while at idle. I put in about a can and a half of 134a from Advanced auto (15 bucks) I just kept filling until it went clear. When clear it looked like there was nothing in there. Now the air comes out at 50 F which is 20 degrees cooler than when I started. I also noted that the slower fan settings yielded cooler temps each by a couple of degrees. So on high setting it was 50 F on low setting it is about 40 F.

Take a meat thermometer from your kitchen and stick into the vents to measure the temps. Works great!

 

[Mark Hahn]

When you first start the system up you should see bubble for the first 30 seconds to a minute or so. Then it should slowly clear up. If you look at the sight glass with the engine running and have someone turn the A/C on you should definitely see bubbles, if not, then you must be out. You may still have some refrigerant in the system but the low pressure relief valve will prevent the compressor from coming on to protect it. So without a gauge, just pressing the valve on the fill valve to check pressure will only tell you that there is some refrigerant in the system, but not necessarily if there is enough. MGH

 

[big-n-italian]

i never knew about this sight glass! where is it?

 

[1MEANSNAKE]

Ditto, tell us, i am having the same problem as we speak

 

[cyaford]

Finger is pointing to the site glass. The hose is over the port where you would add refrigerant.

 

[1MEANSNAKE]

Will give this a try in the morning

Thanks Guys!

 

[98viperGTS]

I checked the site glass last night. I looked at it and had someone turn the AC on and no bubbles. It looked like nothing happened. I cant tell if it is full or empty?

 

[V10SpeedLuvr]

If you didnt see any bubbles when they turned the AC on, you're low on (or out of) refrigerant

 

[Asp Man]

Hold on. The first thing you should check is if or not the clutch on the A/C compressor is working.
There are not going to be any bubbles if it's not working.
Check with engine on, get someone to turn the a/c on and watch the clutch to see if it engages. If it clicks but doesn't turn the clutch is probably shot, if no click could indicate fuse/wiring issue, bad 'low pressure' switch (also in the above picture just to the right of the sight glass) OR low refrigerant.

 

[98viperGTS]

This is going to sound so bad but here it goes. I know that when I had the AC turned on something kicked on sounded like the fan and when the AC was turned off the sound went away. If it is low on refrigerant what is the process to add some and how do I find the leak?

 

[1MEANSNAKE]

Okay, i tried to insert the freon into the system utilizing the low side as recommended and when i first started to fill the system you could see the freon coming out of the driver-side front of the engine as if the hose had either a leak or was overfilled or busted previously

How bad could this be and what might i be looking at to have this repaired? I hate driving without A/C

 

[93Cobra]

AC??? I didnt know the Viper had AC... I never use it. If it was working fine and all of a sudden its not, I would think the problem would be something else besides refrigerant.

 

[cyaford]

I checked the site glass last night. I looked at it and had someone turn the AC on and no bubbles. It looked like nothing happened. I cant tell if it is full or empty?

Chad is right. Sounds like you're low or out. When you get really low on refrigerant, the compressor will not turn on. Your situation sounds just like mine. I went to Wal-Mart and bought a R134-a recharge kit, complete with cheap hose and guage for about $19. It's in the pic I posted above. Follow the instuctions and you should be cool in no time, unless you have a really bad leak like 1MEANSNAKE. I actually had to turn the AC down the other day when it was over 90 outside, cause it was so frickin cold inside the car.

Good Luck!

 

[SYNFULL]

You obviously have a leak near or at the compressor. The high side and low side both go to the compressor from the area where you fill the freon. I don't think you are going to be able to do it yourself because even if you find the leak (which you can do by buying "special tinted freon") you will need to probably replace the line which isn't so hard- but you need to vacuum the lines before you add any more freon.
I would check the two lines going to the compressor- one of them might have just come loose and needs tightening. Each one has a 10mm bolt that holds the line in. If thet is the case you will still need someone to vacuum the system to get the air out.

Gary

 

[Warfang]

So I refilled my R134, and all works great! The pressure reads 25psi. I wasn't able to get it higher, although the can say 25-45 is normal.

 

[Warfang]

update- now I only get cold air for about an hour or so, then it gets warm. By the next day, the cold air is back for another hour or two... if it's a leak, wouldn't it just be all gone?

 

[Travis]

There is so much wrong info in this post about AC I don't know where to start. You guys need to visit the forums at www.ackits.net for some basic AC knowledge. For starters, you CANNOT correctly charge the AC with one of those Walmart 'death kits'!! Come over to the ac forums and learn why..

 

[Warfang]

That's a lot of searching and reading... how about pointing us to the key info?

 

[Bonkers]

Okay, I just did a very long search on the "walmart death
kits." Almost everything I found was in reference to some
kind of R12 to R134a conversion kit that WM sells for like
$60. The only possible peice of info I found elsewhere said
about the hi/low pressure causing a leak in the system.

Well if you already have a leak in the system what's a recharge
going to hurt?

Also I have to be over cynical about an AC site owned,
operated, and visited by a bunch of HVAC workers. Its like
when Jiffy-Lube tells me that I can't possibly do an oil
change correctly with only a bucket, a funnel, and a socket.

 

[Got Venom]

I recently did a run up to the Lake Tahoe mountains with about 20 vipers, and had no A/C ? So I went to a auto store, and bought a few cans of the R134 and 1 small can of the o-ring rejuvantor. I charged it up, and saw the bubbles come and then go, and nice cool air coming out of the vents. The only bummer, when I shut the car off, I could hear a real quiet hiss coming from under the car somewhere. So we put it up on one of the guys racks, and we could see way up in there, that one of the aftermarket Monel header heat shields from DC Motorsports had slowly worn a cut into the low pressure A/C hose running under the engine. So we could not fix it without all the right tools, because it was way up there, but I did add another can of R134 for the drive home, and we made it. Now I have to have Ted at Valaya replace the hose.

 

[Travis]

You CANNOT correctly charge a AC system by pressure(espically the low pressure that the death kit tells you). AC systems are charged be WEIGHT. Not knowing the AMOUNT of freon in the system(only known by WEIGHING) can cause havoc on the system. The only proper way to charge a system is to RECOVER the remaining freon, EVACUATE the system(with vaccum pump), and RECHARGE the system by WEIGHT and a proper set of ac LOW and HIGH pressure gauges. Leak detector can be added at this time also.

We call them 'death kits' because they often contain 'stop leak' that does not stop leaks but will destroy a system. NEVER USE STOP LEAK IN A AC SYSTEM.

"Owned by HVAC workers?" LOL. There is only one person on that board that is affiliated with ACkits.net. We give him buisness because his knowledge is priceless. You crack me up..

 

[Warfang]

You CANNOT correctly charge a AC system by pressure(espically the low pressure that the death kit tells you). AC systems are charged be WEIGHT. Not knowing the AMOUNT of freon in the system(only known by WEIGHING) can cause havoc on the system. The only proper way to charge a system is to RECOVER the remaining freon, EVACUATE the system(with vaccum pump), and RECHARGE the system by WEIGHT and a proper set of ac LOW and HIGH pressure gauges. Leak detector can be added at this time also.

We call them 'death kits' because they often contain 'stop leak' that does not stop leaks but will destroy a system. NEVER USE STOP LEAK IN A AC SYSTEM.

"Owned by HVAC workers?" LOL. There is only one person on that board that is affiliated with ACkits.net. We give him buisness because his knowledge is priceless. You crack me up..

From what I've read so far, the site looks legit. Sure, some people might be making money on it, but the info seems pretty helpful, albiet a bit over my head. Much like the forum here, there are a couple of super-knowledgeable Viper guys here that happen to also earn a living selling parts to us... doesn't make this site any less legit.

That said... I take it I'll have to take my Viper in to get the AC looked at. Would going to an AC specialist be better than the local vipertech?

 

[KepRght]

i took my non working AC to Al @ Valaya racing, he used a double guage thingie and a couple cans of stuff & bam 15 minutes later it was blowing ice cold. i didnt pay any attention to the guages but it sure wasnt rocket science like these guys want you to believe

 

[Tom F&L GoR]

Given the liability of a pressurized can, moving parts, and high pressure pumps in the hands of amateurs, you would think "death kits" would carry legal warnings or a higher retail price to pay for lawyers.

And somebody better tell Dodge, too. The service manual says to install the suction and discharge guages, but get this: It simply says to add refrigerant until the sight glass clears, then add 8 oz more! So everyone that stops adding when the bubbles go away is still 8 oz short.

So, sorry, and I'll admit to not having visited the AC site, but from similar comments aimed at an oil company, it comes acress as saying everyone driving a car has high explosives (called a gas tank) in the rear.

 

[hemibeep]

The vacuum portion is designed to remove all of the moisture in the system. Under vacuum, water vaporizes at a low temp and is "boiled" out of the system. Perhaps in a very dry area you might get by with the recharge kits.

I use the high/low gauges and pay attention to the high and low side pressures. I fill with gas to fall within factory specs, not even looking at the bubble glass.

So far, two years, so good. I had to replace most of the system after the wreck.

 

[Travis]

Given the liability of a pressurized can, moving parts, and high pressure pumps in the hands of amateurs, you would think "death kits" would carry legal warnings or a higher retail price to pay for lawyers.

And somebody better tell Dodge, too. The service manual says to install the suction and discharge guages, but get this: It simply says to add refrigerant until the sight glass clears, then add 8 oz more! So everyone that stops adding when the bubbles go away is still 8 oz short.

So, sorry, and I'll admit to not having visited the AC site, but from similar comments aimed at an oil company, it comes acress as saying everyone driving a car has high explosives (called a gas tank) in the rear.

We call them 'death kits' because they often claim they will allow you to switch from R12 from R134A with just changing the fittings and recharging. Also because they often include 'stop leak' which just harms your system.

Maybe you don't know as much as you think you do? Far fetched, I know..