My AC hasn't worked in a few years so some details might be sketchy. Anyway, years ago it was short cycling and took a long time to start cooling (like 10+ minutes) so I started with the obvious of checking and recharging the refrigerant. I think at the time it read low, then I started charging and it quickly went to high, up to the red zone. I stopped charging thinking it's dangerously high and lived with the short cycling for a while. The next year I replaced the pressure cycling switch before summer thinking that would solve it, but compressor didn't engage at all, nothing came on. I thought it was compressor clutch or something costly so I didn't pursue it. Years go by...
Today I thought, what the hell, I'm going to recharge it with the half can of leftover R134a. To my surprise, it started cycling again, though a short cycle. But my problem is this: the gauge would read very high, in the red zone, then a hiss comes from the compressor area, the pressure would dip quickly all the way down to the lowest (green) zone. Then pressure then builds back up to red, hisses, and drops to low again. I'm out of refrigerant now but I want to know if the pressure is high or low. The high reading scares me, but then it dips down so I don't really know if it's high or low. I don't know the extent of the leak so at the very least I want to be able to fill it full and evaluate if/how long the AC will work. Assuming there is no refrigerant, how many ounces would I need?
Last edited by andy; 08/02/06 07:01 PM.
