Can you recharge your air conditioning system yourself? Did a search, couldn't find anything. If not, what is usually the price for a shop to do it. Just so i don't get gouged!

thanks in advance

 

yes you can but then you don't know why your gas level was low .... and it just may end up low again next week because you have a leak. But you can go to any autopart store and buy a can of gas and it will only connect one way - then you shoot the gas in and cross your fingers. A buddy of mine does this every month to keep his a/c cold. His system leaks like crazy but he sees a monthly can of gas as being cost effective

I just had a system check on my Honda at a local garage and their standard rate was $20 - same as MINI dealer charged me a while back. Then if all is well but pressure is low, you pay for the gas as needed. Altho if they DO find a leak you may need to take a deep breath and hold on to your wallet as a compressor, or evaporator or dryer will cost more than a few pennies.

There is nothing fancy or special about MINI a/c so any decent place that does A/C should be able to do the job....test and refill that is. If you need parts that is (might be) a different story.

 

Our local autozone carries a leak detection kit that comes with die, special glasses and a uv light. It is very effective at finding leaks.

 

I say put a can in yourself and you might get lucky. I did this on my '05 MCS a couple months ago and it's still blowing cold.

 

Same here - my system was about 10psi low at 95 degrees outside and blew cool, but not really cold. Bought a coolant kit with gauge, filled it back up to spec pressure and now it has its cold mojo back. So far so good a month later.

 

Wonder if I should try a bit, but I'd like to know what the pressures should be with a proper amount of R134a,
so I don't overfill (what if it's allready a little overfilled - I could just make it worse in that case).
I've seen several threads on this subject, but never any hard numbers on what the pressures should be.
My a/c has been adequate but mediocre with exactly the same performance over the past 7 years, so I'm sure I don't have a leak.

 

The cans you get at autozone or whatever will come with the gauge on top and a chart on the side that tells you how much prssure to put in based on the outside temperature. To fill your system, look for the black caps next to where the drive side headlight sits. The hose will only fit on one of the nozzles. Good luck :D

 

I got one of the gauge/can setups from the auto parts store just to see if I needed a "topping off" (A/C is working fine, though).

After hooking the can up to the low-side port, the gauge read 35 PSI, which was on the low end of the recommended range for the ambient temperature.

I tried to charge the system further to get it to the middle of the range, but it wouldn't go above 35 PSI. I'm not too worried about it since the A/C is working, but I'm puzzled that I couldn't seem to add any freon to the system.

 

I take it that the 35psi reading was taken with the A/C on max so the compressor was running?

 

I have the auto A/C, so I set it on the lowest possible temperature setting ("LO") in order to make sure the compressor was on. I didn't actually watch the compressor to make sure it was turning, though.

 

Follow-up: Turns out that the compressor wasn't running when I was getting the 35 PSI reading, and that's why the system wouldn't take an additional charge.

Even though I had the A/C set to AUTO and "LO" on an 80 °F day, the compressor won't run constantly trying to get the interior temperature down that low.

When I switched the A/C to "manual/LO", the compressor kicked on and I was able to get a true reading.

 

Glad to hear you got it going.

 

Thanks - I almost screwed myself anyway. When I finally got the system to take a charge, I accidentally over-charged it, so the compressor kept kicking offline because of the high-pressure switch.

I had a little bit of the refrigerant taken out and everything's fine now, but I would have been pretty upset at myself if there had been permanent damage, since there wasn't anything really wrong with the A/C in the first place - I was just trying to see if it needed "topped off" after four years.

 

After reading all this, I think I'll leave mine alone, since, after all, it does work.

 

I was thinking the same thing cristo. There is a local shop that will check it and fill it for about $75. I might just take mine there.

 

My a/c recently stopped working without any warning. When I press the a/c button in my dash, the compressor does not turn on. Is it possible that my a/c system could be low on freon?

 

The cheapest way to find out is to get a can with the gauge and do it... if it's within spec then you may have a bad compressor, or something else with the AC system

 

It is possible that the Freon is low but unfortunately the problem is most likely the compressor clutch with is not available separately from the compressor.

Not a simple job and that compressor is expensive. An indy shop did mine for $1200. Ouch.

///Rich

 

i got can with gauge, put it on fitting it fits small, it went over 200psi, that is high side,, it will not fit low fitting, half the size???
what is this with high side with small fitting and can fits??? wrong

 

Mine went right into the "Red" too. Like 150.

Car running, AC on high. I tried filling it and it's still blowing warm air

 

Low side PSI should be between 30-50 PSI. High side will be between 140-260 PSI. The cans with gauges will only fit on the low side, so if low side is 150-200 PSI, you need to purge the low side.

 

Wife's A/C ('03 R50)has been out for two years now(!). Standard three dial controls and A/C button had flashing LED when on and blowing warm air.

Got 20 oz can of refrigerant today at O'Reillys with gauge. Reading was about 15 psi. Started adding refrigerant and compressor kicked on and started blowing cold air! Kept adding and adding for about 5 minutes and now can feels very empty- it's much lighter than before. Pressure is only about 35psi, right at the very low edge of the range for the temperature. If it holds I may get another smaller can to top it up as my car ('02 R50) shows about 45psi as compressor cycles on and off quite frequently but does blow cold air. My car has the auto A/C controls, so that might have something to do with the compressor cycling.

Val

 

Until such time A/C compressor kicks in that is what you will see for pressure in the low pressure line....

 

Sorry. Would like to add a note of caution here. First, avoid the DIY cans of refrigerant with leak sealant. They rarely work and will dramatically increase repair costs. Pure 134A refrigerant is cheap (about $5 a can on Amazon - look for DuPont Suva).

Filling by the low pressure side pressure is extremely unreliable - but that is all the information you get from the cans with built in pressure gauge. A proper analysis is to measure both the low and high pressure sides while the compressor and condenser fan are running and adjust based on outdoor temperature. Harbor freight AC gauges work ok and are not that expensive ($48 with their coupon). You should consider that the minimum gear needed.

If you need to remove refrigerant, it has to be recovered and not vented to the atmosphere.

MINI does not give nominal pressures for their AC systems, they specify the fill by weight and it isn't a lot - 14.5 ounces plus or minus 0.5 ounces on my car.

So to do the job properly - recover refrigerant, pull hard vacuum, identify and fix leaks, fill by weight, enjoy frosty AC...

I bought my vacuum pump, recovery machine and refrigerant scale used. Don't need a fancy automatic unit. Didn't spend a lot. Probably the tools my friends want to borrow the most...

 

And if you really want a warm fuzzy feeling, you can study the guides and take the EPA certification test for mobile AC work for $20-$25 online. Gives you the right to buy any mobile refrigerant.

There are several, this is just an example:
https://www.epatest.com/609/openbook/