hey anyone use those ac recharge kits you can get at like a walmart or auto store to charge their ac up? if so do they work and where am i looking under the hood to use it. Live in Az and my ac is fine but wanted to pum it up for the hot summers here

 

Ummmmm; if your A/C is fine then you don't want to go adding more refrigerant to the system. They are designed to run with a specific amount of "freon" and should not be exceeded.

 

ok how do you know when its typically time to recharge it i have a 05 limited with 31000 miles on it

 

when the ac is no longer cold

 

Nail on the head. If it's no longer cold enough then you should take it in and have an evac/recharge(evacuate entire system and recharge with proper amount of A/C.

 

You start adding freon to a system thats already charged and your going to blow out a seal or a hose. You really need to hook up the gauges to both the high and low side, If you don't know what that means...leave the ac system alone. If its cold your good, if its not cold take it to a shop.

 

Yes, those a/c recharge kit works pretty easy and simple, however, ONLY IF you fully understand what you are doing.

Do keep in mind that running low on freon do not cause too much problems, just the pump works harder. However if you over charge the freon, you may blow up the ac system, I'm talking about explosion here.

Most of the recharge kit only comes with one gauge, which tells you the pressure on the low side only, and the pressure changes a lot as the a/c pump goes on and off. You have no idea what is the pressure on the high side, and it won't tell you how much freon you already have in the system. As marauderroy said, you should have 2 gauges on both low and high side to recharge it safely.

 

You never need to recharge it if there is no leaks.

You can tell the freon is low when it a/c is not cold, and you hear the a/c pump goes on and off a lot more frequenily than normal. But you will need to confirm with the gauges, it could be other reasons.

Again do keep in mind, more freon doesn't mean it gets cooler (it actually get less effective). It needs a balance (or difference actually) of high and low pressure to suck the heat out from the cabin.

NEVER NEVER NEVER overcharge the system, you will get more trouble.

 

I know this thread is almost a year old but I'm digging it up anyway.

A few weeks ago I noticed the A/C in my daily driver just wasn't blowing as cold as it should any longer so I picked up a recharge canister made by InterDynamics. I heard about it on the forum I frequent for that particular car and last week I met the folks from ID at the Advance Auto Parts Manager's Conference. They were telling me that they're struggling to get people to accept this as a DIY process even though you can do for more easily than changing your oil (which has a very high DIY rate) and save a heck of a lot more money in the process than you do with a DIY oil change.

I understood completely - I change my own oil and always have, dating back to my first car in the late '70s. But this was my first experience with recharging an A/C system, although I've paid in excess of $100 previously with other cars. The operation was quite simple with this $30 canister/gauge package, and my A/C has been blowing ice cold ever since. For those of you with 2004 or 2005 MY cars that may be seeing a reduction in cold air output from your A/C, I highly recommend this product for a quick DIY fix that will save you time and money.

 

Mike - Why on earth would I need my ac blowing like ICE right now? Its 35 degrees here!
Thanks for the tip in all seriousness. Does their kit work for other cars as well? As always you are a wealth of information and help.