Chevy Venture A/C cold on passenger side, hot on driver side?

[boosted5.3]

Forgive me if this is the wrong area, just joined this forum. I have a 2002 Chevrolet Venture FWD and I'm having an issue with the A/C system. First off, I bought it in February of last year and when I did, the number 5 on the fan speed would start and stop working at random. A couple months later, the number 5 stopped working completely. I've been told it's most likely the resistor.
Anyway, this summer, I've noticed another issue. The air conditioning is cold on the passenger side and hot on the passenger side. The only thing I've done was replace the (filthy) cabin air filters and added a can of freon to it. I can't get any shop to even talk to me about it without charging me at least 100 bucks. Would really like some help on this because my kids don't need to be in this heat with no A/C.

[brcidd]

Very common failure mode when system refrigerant charge drops below half of under hood specified amount due to a leak in your system. Seen it hundreds of times, on numerous body styles. There is only enough refrigerant to boil off in the evaporator inlet side which just so happens to feed the passenger side of your vehicle. If refrigerant charge level was adequate, both inlet and outlet sections of evaporator would be capable of boiling refrigerant, and both side of cabin would be cooled. So best to confirm this, by recovering and weighing refrigerant, this confirms you have a leak, so then find and fix your leak, repair it, evacuate the system and recharge to specified amount and be cool.

Big Hint- most common leak location in 2001-2002 U-vans is the condenser lower right hand corner (passenger side) -where bracket weld cracks/breaks away and tears the header open-- you can see oil residue from 6ft away if condenser is the original one-- note original condensers are black in the front- replacement condensers are aluminum and not coated or painted.....so is yours the original?

[merc81]

Does the rear AC blow cold air? If so, I'd consider the freon level OK and look at the motor actuators that run the damper doors for the heat/ac ducts. Does your van have dual temp controls? Some have a temp for driver and a seperate temp for passanger side. The system uses servo motors to open and close damper doors that divert air flow through cold or hot exhchangers in the dash. These fail and you can get them on ebay.