Adding refrigerant to a car's air conditioning system is a quick easy way to make your car blow cold air again right? Well although this practice is very common - people are many times adding freon without any idea of what the pressure readings are and this can be dangerous. And many times the problem won't even be low refrigerant, but if ac gauges are not used how is one you know? Blindly putting 134A into a cars air conditioning system without knowing the capacity, how much is in the system already or even knowing what the low and high side readings are, is not recommended. Using an inexpensive single hose, no gauge A/C charging kit like the ones sold at parts stores can cause damage to the cars AC system. Overcharging can ruin a compressor and adding stop leak included in many of the DIY 134A charging kits can restrict flow in key components.
Using an air conditioning A/C manifold gauge set and seeing BOTH high and low side readings only makes sense. It's the way professional auto technicians check an A/C system. You need to know gauge readings to look for. Normal readings, high readings, low readings all tell a story. On a 134A system the high and low side service ports are different sizes and cannot be reversed. Only charge through the low side, this is the blue color coded side. So when a system is determined to be low, the refrigerant will be hooked up to the yellow hose and the blue knob on the A/C gauge set will be opened to allow refrigerant to flow into the system. Once the proper readings Are obtained and cold air is blowing again the job is done. It's common for systems to have a very slow loss of freon over time. But if the system loses it's charge quickly, the leak needs to be diagnosed and repaired.
Most Common Tools Needed For AC Repair
- A/C Gauge Set
- Thermometer
- Electronic Leak Detector
- Vacuum Pump
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