Girlfriend has a 2004. Compressor went out and shop wanted 1200 to replace, so naturally I took the job on myself. New OEM compressor, drier and expansion valve later and the system held a vacuum for several hrs. So i know im ok up tp this point. I'm having a hell of a time to get it to work properly though. It's a cool day today (65) so not a day I'd use a/c, but it is working in my car. I was seeing an "off" pressure of 85-90 and when on, I'd see 15 low, 150 or so high. On the PAC, its about 70 when off and when on, low drops to almost 0 and high was 100. Figured I needed more freon. I can't seem to get the car to take any though. (I'm also having a hell of a time with these cans of r134 from advance auto - don't seem to seal well and constantly leak, so hard to judge how much I'm actually getting in).The compressor kicks on and doesnt ever seem to cycle. Also the radiator fans don't turn on. I thought that seemed odd. So the PAC will have an initial pressure of roughly 5/110 and they will steadily build. It will hit 30/250 (way too high for today's temps) and then all of a sudden both radiator fans kick on, the pressures plummet to the initial readings, the fans turn off and it starts all over again. I'm about to take it to a shop and just let them evacuate & recharge it again (I have a vacuum, but no way to capture freon). I don't believe these fans should operate like this though. I'd expect one to be on any time ac is on and other kicks in if it needs to. Any ideas? Also does anyone know pressures for this system? I know it takes 28-29oz and I am fairly certain I'm right in that range, but things don't seem right

 

Just to update this thread....
Took it to a shop and had them evacuate and recharge so that I could be sure I wasn't going to burn up all of these new parts. It was a few oz low. Once properly charged, the fan kicked on instantaneously and the a/c would freeze you outta the car!

I HAVE A NEW PROBLEM THOUGH!! Sooo, it's been several weeks, but the a/c has stopped working again. It is out of freon!! I had put tracer in when I charged it as a "just in case" and I'm glad I did. I grabbed my UV light and searched the entire engine bay and didn't find any leaks. Not a good sign. So, I pulled the cabin air filter and sure enough, it was bright yellow. It does not appear to be the evaporator. I'm not super familiar w/ A/C systems, but it appears two hoses/lines are in that area and one is leaking. I assume the workload of replacing those lines is comparable to the evaporator though. Anyone done this before? Entire dash come out? This may cause me to throw a "For Sale" sign in the window...

 

"So, I pulled the cabin air filter and sure enough, it was bright yellow. It does not appear to be the evaporator."


The only thing that is in the dash area is the evaporator the tubes U see are part of the evap.