orifice tube

[DELOSBORNE]

I have a 2004 Buick lesabre, I need help locating the orifice tube please help.....

[Tech II]

Uh, why?

[DELOSBORNE]

I have had the system evacuated. They are telling me that the orifice tube or the accumulator is clogged they want 500 to replace those 2 things so I'm going to replace it then have it recharged.

[brcidd]

Highly unlikely either is bad- but OT is between the ports-on liquid line. very easy access

I've been doing a/c a long time, never seen a v-5 compressor clog an OT.

[DELOSBORNE]

Condenser is clean, fans kick on full of freon, electro magnetic clutch is kicking on. Not sure what else it could be but it's blowing hot air unless the thermostat in the dash is broken

[brcidd]

"Full of Freon" ??? How do you know? The only way to know is to extract and weigh the refrigerant. 65% of what I see, has lost nearly all it's refrigerant-- V-5 pumps do NOT cycle when they go low on charge, and they will run continuously with only 5% of charge in them-- so I'd say you have lost nearly all your refrigerant (hint - compressor belly leaker-likely).

With the correct amt of refrigerant (2lbs) in your system, you have about a 95% chance it will cool- so find and fix your leak.

[DELOSBORNE]

It was tested, and they said it was full.

[Tech II]

let's get a timeline on this thing.....

So, you had no cooling.....who diagnosed this?

Was the system low on freon, to begin with?

Did this garage, attempt to recover whatever freon was in the system? How much did they recover?

If it was low on freon, did they attempt to find the leak?

Or did they just pull a vacuum and fill the system?

Did they tell you what the pressures were?

The orifice tube will only clog, if the compressor launches, and sends debris into the system......so why didn't they suggest you need a compressor? have never seen an accumulator plug up......if the orifice tube was plugged, the system would cut out on high pressure....

So you say your system is full, the compressor is engaging.......have you felt the line after the orifice tube? Is it cold? Are the lines sweating? If they are you have a temp door problem.....

If they are not cold, you need to know what the pressures are on the hi/lo sides with the engine not running, and with it running and the A/C on max....