AIRCON leak - not cold, what could it be? More info

[kylo33710]

My 1996 VS was bought with no aircon, with the fan on and the temperature on cold, it's room temperature. when i turn the A/C on aswell, i hear a hissing sound, and when i turn it off it stops. sound is coming from the left side of the dash. what should i troubleshoot first? thanks alot

 

[kylo33710]

sorry, i bought it and it had aircon but it wasn't working.

 

[Brett_jjj]

Its probably low on gas if its making a hissing sound when the A/C is turned on. My VS did this, I took it in for a regas and its been working beautifully ever since. The workshop manuals for these cars mentions that these A/C systems need a periodic regassing to keep them working at their optimum, as the refrigerant slowly leaks out of the system over time.

 

[kylo33710]

thankyou

 

[Gus The Snail]

Make sure they add a little oil to the system when gassing it , will help keep the seals wet , which aids in the sealing.

 

[08sky_way]

I've had 2 VRs with leaking ACs and have wasted a few re-gas services that only lasted up to 9 months before the system needed re-gassing again. In one car (a Lexcen) the leak was from the nipple that is bolted onto the top of the compressor - I had the service people remove the nipple and fit it with two new 'O' rings in 2004. My son drives the Lexcen now and after 8 years the thing still works OK. With my Acclaim it needed a regas when I bought it so I had the same 'O' rings replaced before the regas. The gas still leaked out after about 9 months. In the meantime I did a careful check of the condenser when I fitted a new radiator and could find no telltale sign of any leaking (oil in the AC attracts dirt when it leaks out with refrigerant gas). I then removed the plastic plenum cover under the windscreen wipers where there was obvious signs of leakage. This seems to have sorted the problem, but I only had it done 8 months ago.

The thing that annoyed me was that the specialist service business did not go to the trouble of removing the plenum cover to look for leaks the first time I had it done and I doubt whether they would have bothered to look there the second time around. Changing seals cost an extra $20 over the normal regas price. If it needs a re-gas it must be leaking from somewhere.

 

[kylo33710]

thanks for all the responses guys