My AC went out last year so I took the car to the shop and they said it was the compressor leaking. They wanted 900 bucks to fix it and I said 'no thanks'. I then used a recharge kit and that did the trick for about a year.

Now when I recharge it's less effective. I imagine air/water is getting into the system?

So should I...

1. buy a new compressor put it in, go to a shop to have them vacuum it and add r134a?
2. Do step one, but buy my own vacuum?
3. Buy a vacuum and just recharge it myself periodically?

If #3 would be very cheap, I may try it, but if #1 or #2 is doable for about 300, I'd go for it.

 

1. What type of vehicle???

2. It might be cheaper to buy the components(A/C compressor, dryer, expansion valve,etc.) and have a shop do the work.

3. If you know how the A/C system works and able to replace the components yourself and then have a shop flush, vacuum, and recharge the system.. You can save more money..

4. Or you can do it all yourself.... Compressor/dryer/expansion valve or orifice tube around 300~800, depending on vehicle....vacuum pump(cheap) around 20 dollars..... Flush around 15 dollars..... 8 ounces of Oil around 5~10 dollars..... 3 cans of freon around 15~25 dollars..

If you replace one component, its best to replace all.....

 

Oops, 98Z28. ;-)

BTW, in laymans terms how would I use the vacuum pump?

 

Warning! you wanted laymans terms so this is long.

Right or wrong here's how I recharged my ac recently and it works good. First I swapped compressors with a used working compressor with new seals. (If it were a new compressor I would have replaced the dryer and maybe expansion valve also but since it was used, I said screw it.) I pressure tested the system with nitrogen by hooking up manifold guages to the system. The nitrogen tank has smaller fittings so I had to use r-12 type manifold guage with r134a adapters on the high and low side, after connecting the yellow hose to the tank, open the valves till you get about 100 psi. Close valves, and remove nitrogen tank, I let it sit for about an hour and no pressure dropped so I must be somewhat leak proof. Now open the manifold guage valves to remove nitrogen. I borrowed a portable vacuum pump(Robinair 15600) from a friend who does hvac service calls. Hook up the yellow hose to the pump, it also has a smaller fitting so r-134a manifold guages won't work as its yellow hose fittings are larger. Open main valve and gas ballast valve on the pump, turn on pump and after a few seconds close gas ballast valve. Let the pump run for atleast a hour or so. The low side guage should show around 28 hg. After a hour I shut off the red and blue valves on the manifold guage, switched the pump to closed position and shut it off and disconnect the yellow hose from the pump. I removed the r-12 manifold guage set and connected my r-134a guage set. I hooked up the yellow hose to can piercing valve and screwed on a 3oz. can of pressurized pag 150 oil. I injected part of the can then started the car with the ac on max, jumpered the compressor relay to spin the compressor and sucked in the rest of the oil. I turned off the car and swapped the r134a manifold guages to the r-12 guage set w/ r134a adapters. I hooked up the yellow hose to a 30# tank of r134a and set it on a digital hvac scale that measures in pounds and ounces. I restarted the car with ac on max and open the blue low side valve, after a couple of seconds my compressor kicked on so I didn't have to jumper the relay to suck in the rest of the r134a. While watching the scale I shut the low side valve off after the tank decreased alittle under 2 pounds in weight since thats what my system takes and also allowing for 1 ounce of r134a in the pag oil can I injected earlier. If I remember correctly my low side pressure read around 35 and the high side around 275.
The reason for swapping manifold guages so often was I got my r134a in bulk and the fittings are smaller than the small r134a cans you buy in retail stores, also the vacuum pump takes the smaller fittings. Sorry this is so long, I just wanted to tell you what to expect if you do this yourself and I'm sure the ac experts can find some flaws with the way I did it!

 

Thanks for the tips! I'm going to have to do this soon since recharging it using the cheapo kits will only get me by for so long.

 

If it's been leaking for that long replacing the accumulator with the compressor is the proper way to do it. The accumulator incorporates a dessicant bag to absorb moisture and is now probably saturated. It's very likely that you have both air and moisture in the system.

I would:

-Replace compressor
-Replace accumulator
-Replace orifice tube (cheap, easy insurance, and acts as an indicator of compressor condition - if you see large pieces of metal flush system)
-Vacuum and leak check, 30 minute vacuum time minimum
-Properly recharge - that means weighing the refrigerant and not guessing from feel by cans.

Don't forget the PAG oil!