Major A/C mishap

[cnuttgirl]

Just had knee surgery on thursday, had a sever case of cabin fever so went with my husband to get him a new cell phone. After two hours we scored, and were getting ready to leave to hang out with friends when he turned the key and teh disaster began.

All the sudden, there was all of this white smoke everywhere. It took us a minute to realize it was coming from us. We turned the truck off. I thought blown head gasket, he thought blown radiator hose.

Turns out it was something near the A/C compressor. He traced the leak and could feel it coming out near the lower of two fittings (possibly the return line??).

Can anyone give me any insight as to what might have happened?

I just got it back from the dealer (stopped by on my way home form work). They replaced the A/C manifold 7 weeks ago, and they told me today that the compressor failed because it has a hole rusted in it. Of course no one else can see the hole.

There's compressor oil everywhere and no A/C function at all.

any ideas or insight would be well appreciated.
thanks!!

 

[cnuttgirl]

anyone out here have any A/C experience?

 

[rwinch]

Yeah, is was an A/C mechanic a few years back.

I was trying to make sense of your issues from the description, but to me it sounded like the dealership found the compressor shot - a hole in it. Now, I have never heard of that before, and to me I thought that maybe the high side connection to the compressor failed, which is usually some type of o-ring sealed type of connection.

The way a leak is typically found in an A/C system is with a "bubble" test. In your case, I would pressurize the system by getting one of the kits from an auto parts store (it will include freon and a hose kit). THen one would apply a soap solution to the suspected leak area and watch for bubbles to form, indicating the exact leak point. Thats the easy part....fixing it can get complicated.

That would help you determine if the diagnosis by the repair shop is correct so they don't try to rip you off.

In any case, the competent shop will have to do the repair and recharge the system. It is not a job for the back yard mechanic who does not have A/C experience.

 

[cnuttgirl]

I just got the call from the local shop. Can anyone on this site confirm what he told me?

Local Shop: The manifold line was installed incorrectly. It's supposed to have 2 o-rings, and when i took yours apart, it only had 1 o-ring. I put another o-ring in, charged it, and now it's cold as ice.

I hope that i don't have any compressor damage because of this improper installation of the manifold line, and i think that the ford dealer who "fixed" my A/C in the first place should reimburse me for the repair cost ($90).

what do you guys think? thanks for the reply!!

 

[rwinch]

Well, it seems that I was pretty close to the fianl diagnosis!!!

In any case, I would surely try to get reimbursed, but I would not hold my breath......

In terms of damaging the compressor, the only thing I would make sure off is that the repair shop recharged the A/C system with oil again.

System wide, the main issue with low freon levels, or empty systems is with air getting into the system. Air, which contains moisture (water), forms acids and sludge with the freon, which can cause several problems. To correct for this, systems are always hooked to a vacuum pump to completely evacuate the system prior to putting new freon in. Again, just ensure that the system was vacuumed and not simply "purged" with freon which does not get all traces of moisture out from the system.

Hope this helps

 

[cnuttgirl]

wow, that's funny. I work in the power industry and i'm trying to mitigate a pitting situation with some propane boilers. They had a glycol solution go bad because of moisture and air. didn't even think to apply the same questions to the A/C. will give the local guy a call tomorrow.

thanks again for your reply.

 

[rwinch]

FYI - might want to consider cladding the vessels with duplex stainless (2205) if the chemical issues can't be solved. I was in the power industry as well (i was a post Enron purge at my company), and we made all of our pressure vessels out of duplex...

 

[cnuttgirl]

my company picked up two enron power sites: Brownsville, TN and Caledonia, MS, you know of them?

 

[rwinch]

Sorry, I don't. I was not with Enron, but the Enron collapse hit the power sector pretty hard. I was actually with a pollution controls firm, making ESP's, ammonia generation equipment for SCR's, etc for coal power plants.
Enron's collapse, along with Bush's COMPLETE AND TOTAL disregard for the environment caused us, as well as most other pollution control companies to nose dive.
Well, at least I was able to find a job to avoid bankruptcy......