Refilling the A/C System in the XK

[pjmjr508]

My system was completely empty. while Dan (my fab guy) was working my bumper a bar had fallen and put a hole in the condenser. When it was replaced anything that was in the system was removed. I did not check for leaks before filling, based off of the fact everything was ok before the mishap. I picked this up (Quest/R-134a Sub Zero refrigerant). I used the fitting close to the firewall on the passenger side, that appeared to be the best bet per the instructions. Based off the gage that came with it, one bottle was just shy of full. It seems to be working great. I will run for a few days & might pick up a small bottle that works with the kit to top it off at full.

Will see how it goes from here.

BTW thanks guys for your input.
The funny thing is it never gets hot here & when the ac went down we get a heat wave high 80's. Here it is a heat wave, also the humidity was high which is not normal here. so this last week sucked.

[Matt]

Sorry man but any moisture that's left in the system will cause issues. There's a significant amount of air/moisture that don't play nice with the pump and corrode the internals of the system. It's probably worse than throwing non HOAT antifreeze in your reservoir tank.

I know you say you don't use A/C much, but if you plan on keeping that XK for a while you're shooting yourself in the foot.

[pjmjr508]

Sorry man but any moisture that's left in the system will cause issues. There's a significant amount of air/moisture that don't play nice with the pump and corrode the internals of the system. It's probably worse than throwing non HOAT antifreeze in your reservoir tank.

I know you say you don't use A/C much, but if you plan on keeping that XK for a while you're shooting yourself in the foot.

Thx for the info & this is the first time dealing with the AC units. Next month I will have it all vac out & redo, I do plan on keeping for a very long time.

[hoaxci5]

I'm thinking the tools cost less than the labor so it's a solid investment and you know on the old rusty xj something else is going to spring a leak sooner or later.

[pjmjr508]

LOL

[07JeepXK]

I'm with Matt. It needs to be done professionally on our XK. My buddy jay has all the equipment Jacob mentioned for AC and after I did the rear AC/Heat delete I had him vac the system and recharge it. Well lets just say it didn't work to well on the XK and I had to take it to the dealer and have it done. Jay has charged about 50 cars with no problems but the XK was a different story.

[Matt]

I'm thinking the tools cost less than the labor so it's a solid investment and you know on the old rusty xj something else is going to spring a leak sooner or later.

Im trying to remember what we charged.... I think it was about $180 for a complete a/c recharge with dye (varied based on the capacity of the system). Last I looked (because my neighbor needs ac work) a manifold $ pump kit was over $400, plus I still needed freon.

Let me know what you end up getting though; I may want to borrow your setup.

[hoaxci5]

It's $60ish for the manifold gauges, and this little dodad is said to work in place of a real pump.
http://www.harborfreight.com/air-vac...ors-96677.html

[Matt]

Now you have me looking again.... I have a tendency to look at the more brand name supplies. I don't know how much I trust the harbor freight dodad lol but this doesn't look too bad:
http://www.amazon.com/FJC-KIT6-Vacuu...d_sim_sbs_hi_1