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A/C issues I thought I fixed for a minute

1K views 10 replies 7 participants last post by  Josh D 
#1 ·
I just bought a '97 Wrangler and the lady I bought it off had only put about 400 miles on it in 2 years...so it had sat quite a bit. Overall it runs pretty well, but the A/C doesn't blow cold. It blows and the compressor clicks on and off fairly quickly, but it remains warm. I assumed it needed refrigerant so I got a can that comes with the built in gauge and when I hooked it up it read "very low" so I started charging it. Pretty quickly it jumped to "over full" and I kind of panicked (I've never done this before) and started watching Youtube videos and found a few guys that said that all of this will happen if it is very low on refrigerant so against my better judgement I kept charging it and pretty soon the compressor started running constantly and the air started blowing cold. It was reading a normal level on the gauge and before I could breakout in a happy dance the compressor started clicking on and off again, the air went warm and the gauge jumped back up to "over full". Now I'm just confused. Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks in advance for the help.
 
#2 ·
Welcome to the Forum, from Cave Creek AZ.
 
#5 ·
That's pretty much the problem with those systems, the can gage is showing overfull because the compressor is off and the system equalizes and reads overall pressure rather then suction pressure. Really should use proper gauges but hook it back up and add some additional refrigerant and give the system a chance to normalize before checking the gage.
 
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#6 ·
That's pretty much the problem with those systems, the can gage is showing overfull because the compressor is off and the system equalizes. Really should use proper gauges but hook it back up and add some additional refrigerant and give the system a chance to normalize before checking the gage.
Thanks. What is the risk if I happen to overcharge the system quite a bit?
 
#8 ·
If you have really overcharged it the damage could be damaged valves in the compressor requiring a new compressor. On any A/C compressor there are three areas for failure - power, valves and bearings. On automotive A/C the power is not generally a source of failure unless the belt breaks.
 
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#9 ·
You have a leak somewhere in your AC system. Not sure if overcharging it caused any "other" damage, though. But your initial issue was low refrigerant.

When this happened to my TJ, I had a shop evacuate the system then pressurize it to the proper range with refrigerant and a dye. Th3 dye was to detect where the leak(s) were. Ultimately, I needed a new compressor (because it was leaking), new dryer, orifice tube and new o-rings. Now, it's freezer cold.
 
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