My AC quit cooling about a week ago, I put in some freon, it started cooling again, I figured I had a small leak. two days ago, it quit again, figured I had a bad leak. I put another can in, it started cooling, I figured I'd check it out this weekend. Saturday, I'm working on my sisters Central Air blower in my garage, and I hear (what sounds like) a reliefe valve going off. I pop the hood, look inside, and don't see crap. it sounds like it's coming from the compressor side, but I can't see anything.
i take off in my car again, it's still cooling, not as good as it was, but it's cooling.
Now while I was at my sisters house, taking her fan out of her Central air unit, I noticed coolant coming out of my overflow bottle.........It was hot that day, didn't think too much of it.

Anyhoo, I'm tryin to purge my cooling system, I let the car come up to temp, T-stat opens up, I top it off, put the radiator cap on, let it run for a few minutes.........turn the car off, let it settle for about five minutes, open the bleed screws, little bit of air comes out. Open the radiator cap, more air comes out. Top off the radiator, water starts coming out of bleed screws, I close them, then do it all over again.

I did this like three times, then while I'm sitting there waiting for it to cool down again, the reliefe valve goes off again. Next time I start my car, it's not cooling, not even building enough pressure to turn the AC fan on. So.........

I'm going to run to Racetrack, buy a pack of Kools, then see If I can buy another can of 134a, and see what I've got.


Anybody got any clue why this thing is just dumping freon??

 

I recently had a simular problem with my a/c. I saw smoke and heard a hissing sound. I couldn't see anything when i jacked up the car isaw a tiny hole in the hose by the a/c pulley. This is where I was loosing my freon hope that it helps.

 

This was related to my "waterpump working" thread.

Turns out, water was leaking from my radiator cap, I didn't see it. It must have been leaking on the evaporator hose, making it get hot, which makes it go up in pressure, which pops that relief valve.


friggin 134a is $8 a can..............can you believe that?? wonder what a can of R-12 would go for??

 

Even if the water was 250 degrees and somehow managed to get the hose that hot, the freon in the system would still only be ~250 psi at the most, which is a perfectly normal pressure for the high side of the system. I'm not sure on the exact number, but I believe the pressure relief valve opens somewhere around 450 psi, which can be caused by a restriction in the high side or insufficient condensing. I think something else is wrong though, because there is no reason it should be venting freon if the compressor isn't running.