Issues getting refrigerant to charge

Following this.. I have a 2009 and have the same issue with AC blowing hot but it worked well just a couple weeks ago. I bought one of the cans with gauges from autozone but it just shows that it was way over-pressured. Maybe leak on the intake side so over-pressured with air?

Self sealing cans have a valve inside so they don't let refrigerant into the air. You can get an adapter for those if you only have the pin type hose fitting or you can use the hose for the self sealing one type. They are moving towards the self sealing ones especially in California. You can save half a can until next year but now they are wanting a deposit on the cans of $10.

fuzzmanmatt said:

Your system should hold vacuum for hours. Come back and check it now that it's sat, if it's still got vacuum you're good to go.

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System has to hold a vacuum. As Fuzz said for hours, if not, fix the leak and then re-ck.

evan1234321 said:

Thanks for the reply. Yes the gauges displayed 30hg on with vacuum pump running. When turned off vacuum drops back to zero. And yes, I'm by no means a pro but I've done a few projects before back in tech school.

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Bad, bad leak. Obvious but may be hard to find.

So, common leak area is the block at the back of the compressor. Also since you tried to put refrigerant in it and had gauges on it, a stuck Schrader valve is also a possibility. Other than that chasing leaks is probably best left to the A/C guys.

Dude, they all fail pretty much at about this age, common known issue for guys on the forum who do their own work.

Chasing leaks is not hard, just put the dye in and get the yellow light.

How about some pictures of your setup? Sounds like your hose coupler is not correct.

If it holds vacuum for 2 minutes then it should hold refrigerant for a few minutes as well. Lets make sure your equipment is even good first.

Check the rented gauges are in good working order. I have seen them with bent pins and screwed seals. Check the pins for obvious damage and proper range of motion. Check the seals are even there, and they are not torn or worn, do NOT over tighten the hoses to the gauge, finger tight only and not even that tight really. I have seen rented sets missing seals, or damaged. I over tightened a set and that pushed a seal into the gauge causing a restriction into the system, and a leak out of the hose. I did not tighten it that much at all, it was really easy to do.

Out of the 20 or so times I rented gauges, 2 of them were damaged and did not work. I had a few more with bad seals that gave me issues. people around here must be really hard on stuff.

Connect high and low side hoses.
Screw the knobs down to open both high and low valves (blue and red). Sometimes screwing them down too much causes issues, be careful and back off a turn maybe?
Open the blue and red knobs on the valve manifold
(If applicable) open the center valve that is connected to the vacuum (usually Yellow).
pull a vacuum for around 15 minutes.
With vacuum pump running close the center valve (usually yellow) then turn off pump.
note vacuum level on paper or take a pic of the gauge.
Let sit for 15 minutes and look at vacuum level.


If the gauge visibly moves right after shut off then you have a major leak. trying to fill with dye refrigerant should still be tracible because its still coming out. The Schrader valves are a super common leak point if there is no leak detected at any other component.