[DadsAuto]

Wow! What a relief. Someone who has the same problem at almost the same time. I also have a 2003 Galant 2.4 L in which I drive with the AC on 95 percent of the time (I live in S Florida). It was in the 70's the other day so I said what the heck, lets open the sunroof and open the windows and give the AC a day off. SOB!! I give the AC a day off and it thanks me by not working the next day. I drove for no more than 4 miles and I started to smell chemical fumes through the vent then I saw little puffs of white smoke coming from my hood... then the vents stop blowing cold air.

It's such a pisser because I have an extended mfg warranty up to 48K miles and my odometer just posted 49.5K miles. So I bought one of those AC charger gun kits along with a UV dye indicator and UV sunglass and UV pen (60 bucks all together). I put in the dye and nothing. SOB! I figure the dye isn't circulating since most of the C134 has sprayed out. So I decided to go ahead and charge the system and in charging it maybe I can spot the leak. Aha! I spotted the leak! It wasn't in the hoses but it was right on the compressor. WTF! I didn't even know what a relief valve was till I read this post but I'm sure that's what was spraying. A hexagonal bolt with a circular stupid looking thing inside it. And that little F'er was spraying R134 all over the place.

So here's where I'm at. I can't find the part online. How did you ask for it with the dealer? I hear that sometimes they won't sell those kinds of parts for greedy reasons. How much did you buy it for? Can you give me the name of the dealership? Maybe I can just mail order it from them. Once you replaced the relief valve, how did you recharge the system? Did you vacuum it before recharging? Did you bring it to an AC place to have it charged? I read some posts that it may work without vacuuming the system but it could lead to other problems later.

I appreciate your help!!! Dad's Auto