So Reman A/C Compressor shot?

yARIC008 · Oct 8, 2016

Okay... so everything on my AC system has been replaced including the lines. Everything has been completely flushed and dried except the compressor and the accumulator obviously. I filled the system with the prescribed amount of oil which in my case was 10 oz of pag 46. Compressor came with 3 in it, so I added 7.

So last night after having pulled vacuum for weeks and purged with nitrogen a couple times I go to charge it up. I'm using Duracool, so I'm sure many people will say that is the issue, but I don't believe so... From everything I've read it behaves almost exactly like R134A when filling it up except you put in less and it runs at a lower overall pressure because of that.

Anyway, I start putting in the Duracool with the compressor running, my low side pressure starts around 30 psi with the first can, which seemed odd, should be lower I would think. Then after putting in 4 cans the low side pressure doesn't drop below 60 PSIG, and the temp at the evaps doesn't drop at all. The static pressure with the compressor off is 70 PSIG, which is okay with the Duracool. The low side pressure should be dropping more than 10 PSI. The high side is getting around 110-120 PSIG. ***...

Only thing I can figure is the compressor is bad or the orifice tube and/or expansion valve is somehow letting refrigerant by without a restriction. I double and tripled checked the orifice tube and it seemed sealed. It is the variable orifice tube also. The expansion valve on the rear evaporator is a brand new OEM ford.

Does anyone have any good ideas on how to diagnose or troubleshoot this thing without letting out all my refrigerant? Any help is appreciated!! This would be the second brand new reman part I've had fail immediately on this rebuld. First was the redhead steering gear.

MTKirk · Oct 8, 2016

yARIC008 said:
Okay... so everything on my AC system has been replaced including the lines. Everything has been completely flushed and dried except the compressor and the accumulator obviously. I filled the system with the prescribed amount of oil which in my case was 10 oz of pag 46. Compressor came with 3 in it, so I added 7.

So last night after having pulled vacuum for weeks and purged with nitrogen a couple times I go to charge it up. I'm using Duracool, so I'm sure many people will say that is the issue, but I don't believe so... From everything I've read it behaves almost exactly like R134A when filling it up except you put in less and it runs at a lower overall pressure because of that.

Anyway, I start putting in the Duracool with the compressor running, my low side pressure starts around 30 psi with the first can, which seemed odd, should be lower I would think. Then after putting in 4 cans the low side pressure doesn't drop below 60 PSIG, and the temp at the evaps doesn't drop at all. The static pressure with the compressor off is 70 PSIG, which is okay with the Duracool. The low side pressure should be dropping more than 10 PSI. The high side is getting around 110-120 PSIG. ***...

Only thing I can figure is the compressor is bad or the orifice tube and/or expansion valve is somehow letting refrigerant by without a restriction. I double and tripled checked the orifice tube and it seemed sealed. It is the variable orifice tube also. The expansion valve on the rear evaporator is a brand new OEM ford.

Does anyone have any good ideas on how to diagnose or troubleshoot this thing without letting out all my refrigerant? Any help is appreciated!! This would be the second brand new reman part I've had fail immediately on this rebuld. First was the redhead steering gear.

Is the clutch cycling off? When you are checking pressures make sure to bring up the rpms, our 600 rpm idle won't get enough from the compressor to cycle the system off. Maybe bypass the pressure switch to run the compressor a little longer, see if that will lower your low side pressures. Pressure switches do go bad and are easy to replace without de-pressurizing the system. The high side pressure will be quite a bit lower with hydrocarbon refrigerant in a r134a system, in a r12 system the high side pressures will be 10-15% lower. The low side should be the same with any refrigerant because that is determined by the pressure switch (unless the compressor is really weak-it would be running all the time).

yARIC008 · Oct 8, 2016

I started with pressure switch shorted to engage clutch, after first 6oz can i hooked it back up like normal. Compressor clutch comes on and doesn't seem to disengage. Low side pressure only drops to 60 psig according to guages, then stays there at idle. Evap and lines get a little cool at first then just heat up after a few minutes. Pressure switch is new too, btw

79jasper · Oct 8, 2016

Hold 2500 rpm for awhile and see what happens.

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yARIC008 · Oct 8, 2016

79jasper said:
Hold 2500 rpm for awhile and see what happens.

Revving it up does drop the pressure some as you'd expect, not sure where it bottoms out though, but even if that does work, when I drop to idle I'll get no cooling? Reading other people's accounts of Duracool,theirs was ice cold at idle speed. Even my 134A was decent at idle on the old compressor.

79jasper · Oct 8, 2016

Is that stuff hydrocarbon based like the enviro-safe stuff?

Yeah, sounds like compressor or orifice.

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yARIC008 · Oct 8, 2016

Yeah, it's hydrocarbon refrigerant. Supposed to work better than the original R12. So... after lots of reading, I think this might be my plan, blow the system down, install a difference orifice tube, charge it up with R134A and see what it does. If that works, then I'll put the duracool back in. The orifice tube I bought from autozone doesn't have very good reviews so maybe it's the issue? The one i'm getting has much better reviews on amazon. I'd be curious to know what was OEM, but not sure if that'd even help me unless I just go back in with R12.

If that doesn't work I guess I'll get the compressor replaced. Luckily I bought it last October and it has a one year warranty. I've contacted the seller so at least I've told him about it before the 1 year is up. I just really don't want to replace the damn compressor, such a pain in the butt to do especially with the radiator and fan shroud now in. Was hard enough with all that out of the way.

mbolton1990 · Oct 9, 2016

Ya know,this might sound weird but when I was putting R134 in my van, it would only take it if I held the can upside-down..
Right after I did that the A/C got cold immediately! My reman compressor has a front seal leak, I'm hoping a can of stop-leak might get me by for awhile.. who knows.

franklin2 · Oct 9, 2016

mbolton1990 said:
Ya know,this might sound weird but when I was putting R134 in my van, it would only take it if I held the can upside-down..
Right after I did that the A/C got cold immediately! My reman compressor has a front seal leak, I'm hoping a can of stop-leak might get me by for awhile.. who knows.

Be careful doing that. You can turn it upside down for a couple of seconds and then turn it right side up, but if you leave it upside down too long you run the danger of liquid refrigerant entering the compressor. You will know when that happens, the compressor will lock and up and the drive belt will start smoking.

mbolton1990 · Oct 9, 2016

Dang! I didn't know that.
I tried it standing up and it just wouldn't take any.. I figured my compressor was shot lol

chris142 · Oct 9, 2016

I don't know about duracool. But with any refrigerant the charge needs to be very close to exact. Can't just throw refrigerant at it and hope it works

79jasper · Oct 9, 2016

All the literature for all hydrocarbon refrigerants state to use lower pressure/weight.

Mbolton, next time stick the cans in warm water first.

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CDX825 · Oct 9, 2016

Try a red orifice tube and 134a and see how it acts.

FordGuy100 · Oct 10, 2016

I will personally never use a reman AC compressor. Had one last maybe 500 miles before it locked up inside. So an expensive job became twice as expensive. All because I wanted to to the AC project that day and I didn't want to wait on the auto parts store to order me a new one (they had a reman in stock, along with all of the other items).

Take that thing off and send it back. Get a new AC compressor and piece of mind.

yARIC008 · Oct 10, 2016

FordGuy100 said:
I will personally never use a reman AC compressor. Had one last maybe 500 miles before it locked up inside. So an expensive job became twice as expensive. All because I wanted to to the AC project that day and I didn't want to wait on the auto parts store to order me a new one (they had a reman in stock, along with all of the other items).

Take that thing off and send it back. Get a new AC compressor and piece of mind.

Hmm, well if I could find a new OEM I would go that route. All the ones I have seen available are remans though. The one I got off ebay says that they reman for Ford and do all the Ford tests and inspections for quality, and go a step further and inspect for noise as apparently a noisy compressor is a common complaint even when it works fine. But who knows if that is for real or not... They could just be BSing.

The compressor is very quiet though compared to the old one.

So Reman A/C Compressor shot?

yARIC008

Drives really slow

MTKirk

Full Access Member

yARIC008

Drives really slow

79jasper

Chickenhawk

yARIC008

Drives really slow

79jasper

Chickenhawk

yARIC008

Drives really slow

mbolton1990

Full Access Member

franklin2

Full Access Member

mbolton1990

Full Access Member

chris142

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79jasper

Chickenhawk

CDX825

filtration nut

FordGuy100

Registered User

yARIC008

Drives really slow

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