2000 LS1 Air Conditioning recharging

As the summer approaches, the temps are up so my wife turned on her A/C over
the weekend and it just blew hot air.
Since this car was new, she's had to take it in to a Saturn dealer 4 times
to address this issue. Each time they said they "fixed a leak and recharged
it" and it works for the rest of the summer.
I tried to charge it myself tonight with a "universal" hose and a can of
134a tonight and the quick-disconnect will not fit the LS. I measured and
the ID of the female connector on the hose is 0.51" and the male connection
on the car is 0.62". I measured the male connector on my Tundra and it's
0.51".

Has anyone else ever recharged their own A/C on an LS before? Is there a
special adapter that I need?

Thanks,
Dave

 

Obviously they arent fixing the leak. Stop taking it to them. Makes me
wonder what was leaking each time, how they fixed it, and if it was
mentioned on your invoice. If you are missing the caps & the o-rings on
you schrader valves I can tell you where a leak is right now.

These little cans of death should be illegal for anyone to purchase IMO.
And they are if you dont have a 609 certification. If they contain "seal
swellers" or "stop leak" you will be contaminating your ac system! BTW
you were looking only at the "Highside port" on your LS. Since you didnt
know this I would suggest not going any further because the risk is to
great for the DIY'er IMO.

Here's my special adaptor:
http://www.otctools.com/products/detail.php?id=1259
Among $2000+ dollars worth of other tools and equipment.


Reading material:
http://www.refrigerantid.com/refrigerant/news.html
http://www.robinair.com/acsolutions/motorveh/motorveh.php
http://www.epa.gov/Ozone/title6/609/recharge.html

 

The reason why a R134a connection might not fit is because you are
trying to charge the high side. EXTREAMLY DANGEROUS!

If you aren unable/uncertified or uncomfortable, you need to spend the
few bucks and save a finger, or eye you can lose messing things up.

hth,

tom @ www.FreelancingProjects.com

 

Lighten up or get a lighten up or get a life as he is asking for help
not insults. You could have simply told him that his was trying to
connect to the wrong fitting ang they are sized that way because even
well seasons techs can make mistakes too sometimes and the keyed
fitting sizes provents attachement to wrong port.

 

The guy at NAPA told me about the high side vs low side today. I charged it
up, tightened all of the fittings and it works like new!

I used to work on a FLIR system on the A6E bomber in the Navy that used
Helium to cool the detectors down to -450°F. I've never had to charge an A/C
in a car in my 45 years until I bought a new Saturn. I've owned 20 year old
cars that had ice cold A/C with no problems.
I had a 92 SL before I bought this 2000 LS. I put 242,000 miles on the SL
with no problems other that losing a quart of oil every 1000 miles. It had
the original clutch, rear brake shoes and timing chains when I got the LS in
2000. I thought I'd get another reliable car.
The LS has had tons of nickle and dime problems since it was brand new.
I will never buy another Saturn or GM for that matter.
Toyota seems to be the most reliable car for the money!!!

 

Glad you got it working.

That's pretty interesting.

I've never had to charge an A/C

You are just EXTREMELY lucky then. It happens all the time with every
make of car. It is a lot better now that it was 20 years ago, but leaks
are not uncommon at all.

Cheers,

 

So long as you didnt use an additive can of 134 with seal sweller or
sealant in your system you should be fine for this season... Each time
you top off you will eventually introduce to much air into the mix and
who knows what the oil level would be.

I should have noticed when you used thousands to discribe the fitting
sizes that you werent the average DIY'er.

Where's the logic in that?
The L-Series, the 1st model year at that, hardly reflects other GM cars
and trucks considering it shared NOTHING with them. I've probably seen
EVERY make and model you can think of on the road with less than 3 years
use with A/C issues and yes that very much includes Toyotas. If you
actually live by the your above logic, eventually you wouldn't buy any
car on planet Earth...

A glimps at the wonderful world of toyota:

on and on and on....

 

Thanks to everyone for the help.

I guess I have been lucky never having A/C problems until I bought my first
new car.

My main complaint about Saturn isn't the car's nickle and dime problems, I
suppose. It's the service at the dealer. They have been the worst at
Merrilville, IN and Greenwood, IN.
When the car was new, I took it into the Merrilville dealer under warranty
because the headlamp switch was getting very warm. The service manager (some
girl named Kelly, I think) tried to tell me that that was normal. I
explained to her that I am an electrical engineer and switches don't get
warm unless they're underrated or arcing. She then told me that it was
because of where the switch was located on the dash. I told her the switch
was on the turn signal and to please bring a service tech out to look at it.
He came out and told me he'd change the switch. She actually tried to BS me
out of a simple switch! I could go on and on.

The reason I like Toyota so much righ now is that I know so many people that
drive them and swear up and down they're the best cars they've ever owned.
All of them are repeat buyers. I took the plunge an bought a new Tundra last
year and I have no complaints with the truck or with the people in the
service dept. I noticed it didn't start immediately twice last winter,
didn't think too much about it but called the dealer anyway. They said to
bring it in, and they found a TSB problem and changed out the fuel pump (for
an intermittant problem they never witnessed, with no questions asked)! I
was pleased.

Good luck to everyone out there and thanks again for the help.
-Dave

So long as you didnt use an additive can of 134 with seal sweller or
sealant in your system you should be fine for this season... Each time
you top off you will eventually introduce to much air into the mix and
who knows what the oil level would be.

I should have noticed when you used thousands to discribe the fitting
sizes that you werent the average DIY'er.

Where's the logic in that?
The L-Series, the 1st model year at that, hardly reflects other GM cars
and trucks considering it shared NOTHING with them. I've probably seen
EVERY make and model you can think of on the road with less than 3 years
use with A/C issues and yes that very much includes Toyotas. If you
actually live by the your above logic, eventually you wouldn't buy any
car on planet Earth...

A glimps at the wonderful world of toyota:

on and on and on....

 

FWIW, I disagree with you, SnoMan. As a non-DIY-er, I would not have
been insulted by this reply; in fact, I would appreciate the advice and the
delivery of that advice.

 

Maybe you but you assume too much about others. There was no nice
intent in his post as it was meant to be abrasive and nothing more.

 

I agree SnoMan, thanks for your comment, I WAS insulted. I am an intense
DIYer, I do most everything myself. My wife has to take her car in from time
to time when I'm out of town (and I hate that). I do all of my own home and
auto repairs & upgrades. I'm restoring a 72 mach1 from the ground up. I
just never had to mess with A/C recharging before I owned a NEW Saturn.
Dave

 

FWIW, I disagree with you, SnoMan. As a non-DIY-er, I would not have

Thanks Steve but I couldn't care less what Snoman says anymore. He very
much likes to get into arguments and split hairs over nothing. Thus I
blocked him some time back and no longer see his post unless someone
includes his text in a reply. I guess no one knows what "IMO" means
anymore. Next time I'll use IMHO as well as a link to acronymfinder.com
so no ones panties get into a bunch.

If you felt this was insulting it wasnt my intent. I've seen far to
many contaminated and further damaged AC systems as well as people
having had vented refrigerant through blowing out seals or by other
means into the ozone. Thus I will never spur on any DIY'er in a/c
service.

BTW you're a hard person to pin down. You rely on dealerships to
maintain your cars but yet you're a DIY'er? I wouldnt set foot in any
dealership or new car lot if that was the case.

 

Like I said before, I travel a lot and my wife is not a DIYer.
I won't let her ever go to another saturd dealer again!
And BTW, I read the thread again and it wasn't insulting after all. I guess
the way I read the part "..if you don't know that..."
but you were referring to a safety issue, you weren't insulting my
intelligence. I appreciate that.
Can't we all get along?

 

I can see why when you hide behind a name and insult other. You have
issues with those that call your bluff.