Losing AC gas in a weird way

[Gareth Randall]

My 2005 Jeep Liberty 3.7L is losing its AC gas in what I’d call a weird way.

Almost exactly a year ago, we came back after a vacation to find that the AC was blowing warm. It had been fine beforehand, it obviously lost its gas while it was sitting for a couple of weeks. I got it regassed, and planned to have the system leak-tested, but never got around to it because it kept working fine – until yesterday, when overnight it lost all its gas again.

Any ideas as to why it might suddenly lose its gas, then hold its recharge for a year and then suddenly lose it all again overnight?

Topic

[dan]

the refrigerant in vehicles R-134A is made up of very small particles that will leak very easily through the smallest rust pin holes anywhere on any of the refrigerant system lines even bad o rings or other things like the shrader valves in the re charge ports can leak refrigerant, for this reason if you suddenly loose AC because there is no refrigerant in your system there is a high chance there is a leak, and you will probably waste time in just re charging the system and its best to do a leak test and to do so you need the proper equipment.

watch this
[video]http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95RdGLFIbL8[/video]

and there is lots more too AC stuff check this out

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-automotive-hvac-problems

[Gareth Randall]

It’s clear that the gas is leaking from somewhere. My question is, why would it lose its gas suddenly, then hold its recharge for a year before losing its gas overnight again? Given that there’s a leak somewhere, why didn’t it immediately lose all its gas after its last recharge?

[dan]

its possible that it was leaking slow enough that there was enough refrigerent in the system too keep it running and eventually there just wasn’t enough too keep the AC system running. it may appear too leak suddenly but with the way AC systems work if there is enough refrigerent in the system it will maintain operation, then when there isn’t enough refrigerant in the system the AC Compressor wont cycle anyomore and you have no AC.

[EricTheCarGuy]

The speed of the leak is not always relevant. The source is. AC leaks can occur for a variety of reasons. In fact, it’s one of the most complicated systems to diagnose in my opinion. That’s the main reason I recommend professionals perform AC work. That said, I have videos an information on finding and fixing AC leaks here.

http://www.ericthecarguy.com/faq/solving-automotive-hvac-problems

Perhaps that can help you find the source.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[Lorrin Barth]

Before they found out about the ozone problem there wasn’t near the quality in auto A/C systems there is now. They’d work for awhile but when the freon got low they’d quit. So, I have to agree, you have a small leak.

[Author]

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