Yet another A/C question.

Seeing a lot of threads on the board about AC problems . . . funny thing is they seem to fail when things are hot. . . . dunno why. . .:screwy: :icon16:

Anyways, on my '94, the condensor, she took a rock, lost all freon on that side, then following the advice of the forum for troubleshooting, jumped the low pressure switch. Voila, compressor engages (didn't know about the physical damage yet) and I lose the rest in about 2 seconds. System has been open for about 3 weeks and I've just finally gotten the condensor and drier replaced (haven't actually taken the plugs out of the new devices and plugged them in to the remaining hardware, however). My questions are: should I be OK charging the system myself or should I take it to a shop to allow them to do a leak test and vacuum out the system? How tolerant is R-134a to moisture contamination? How much oil should be in the system? Anything else I should replace before sealing everything back up and getting it charged?

Thanks in advance. . . :)

I suggest taking it into the shop to have the a/c work done. The system has to be vacuumed before adding the freon. As for the PAG Oil your system should use ND8 PAG OIL. The best thing to do is to empty out the oil in the old drier and dump it into the new drier, same for the condensor.

Heh, guess I'm boned, then . . . the damage to the condensor was done to the lowest line of the coils. . . there is evidence of oil once being in the condenser, but no more than a couple drips from the O-rings. . . does it really differ that much GC to GC?