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whilst in the shop for a tune up a leak in the a/c system was confirmed. freon was put in on friday and out on monday morning. now its got to go the radiator guy. what should i expect and how expensive could this get?

a professional is the best course of action as i dont really want to put money and effort into DIY only to realize i cant fix it. just curious as to what may be causing the leak and how serious it is. i have no tags or insurance on it yet so driving it wont be an issue. i'm assuming driving would be bad anyway.

Depends on the place I suppose and where you are. At least it was a leak, but I had figured that would be the case anyway.

If its something simple, like a bad seal, that shouldn't be too bad, but if its a damaged condenser, exchanger, or one of the lines, it could cost more. Hopefully they will tell you how much before they actually repair it.

any idea what the average cost to fix a minor leak? whats the worst case scenario?

is it safe to drive with out overheating?

AC freon has nothing to do with your engine cooling to begin with... You can ignore the issue and just have a car without working AC.

The cost can be anything... It could be one seal on the compressor which would probably run you a seal kit, and a vac of the system then re-charge of freon... Not sure what that runs in your area... But at the same time you could have a rusted through line somewhere which could cost a few hundred to replace due to labor and who knows what the part cost will be.

3X00-Modified wrote:AC freon has nothing to do with your engine cooling to begin with... You can ignore the issue and just have a car without working AC.

The cost can be anything... It could be one seal on the compressor which would probably run you a seal kit, and a vac of the system then re-charge of freon... Not sure what that runs in your area... But at the same time you could have a rusted through line somewhere which could cost a few hundred to replace due to labor and who knows what the part cost will be.

so why is there no cold air if the freon leaks out?

Freon gets hot by absorbing heat around it when its pressurized. Then when the pressure is lowered it gets REALLY cold and condenses into a liquid. Then you get cold air.

themadness wrote:

3X00-Modified wrote:AC freon has nothing to do with your engine cooling to begin with... You can ignore the issue and just have a car without working AC.

The cost can be anything... It could be one seal on the compressor which would probably run you a seal kit, and a vac of the system then re-charge of freon... Not sure what that runs in your area... But at the same time you could have a rusted through line somewhere which could cost a few hundred to replace due to labor and who knows what the part cost will be.

so why is there no cold air if the freon leaks out?

Addition to Chad's explination...

The heat coil and the A/C coil are two COMPLETELY separate systems. You have a Cooling system filled with Coolant which keeps the engine at 180-210* while driving... That happens to offer a free way to heat the interior of the vehicle in the winter, so they run that coolant into a heater core in the car and blow air over it. Now for the AC there is a separate system that has its own pump, its own radiator(condenser) and its own core in the car. When you switch to cold air it changes the path of the incoming air and diverts it from going over the heater core and just blows directly to you after going over the AC core, the AC core has incoming air going through it at all times in our system. When your heat is on the AC pump is not running and the incoming air still goes over the AC core but it doesn't change the temp of the air before reaching the heater core, so it doesn't cool then warm the air.

A/C is a driver comfort option and has no affect on the running of the engine.

I would do some more research on the workings of a vehicle before you just hand it over to an "expert" no offense but they take advantage of people like you who do not know a lot on how a car works.

You said its Freon, if it is R-12 not the new stuff, and it has sat for an extended period of time without being used or even charged, I guarantee you'll need to re seal probably the entire system. Seals dry out when not exposed to the refrigerant/lubricant.

its r134

here's what i know:
freon leaks.....only took a couple days
compressor is new but clutch doesnt engage

wonder what the seal replacement will cost?

The clutch isn't engaging I'm betting because there is no pressure. If it was blowing cold air at some point, the clutch was engaged.

Anyway, just pay for the leak test since you're not gonna diy. They'll let you know what you need. Really hard to estimate shop cost. Wish I could do it for you, I hate watching people have to waste money on repair shops.

trust me i hate wasting money @ shops! gotta pick it up from the mechanic. he did a tune up and replaced the manifold gasket. who knows what that will cost. now i have to get it to the radiator man next week.

hope i didnt buy a lemon money trap........

Most old cars.are, LOL. But sounds like you'll have a brand new one!

maybe i should name it krueger or voorhees. or any other horror movie character that has been brought back to life

Lemons are where you keep spending money to fix the same problem over and over. At least as you fix each of these, you will be ahead. This is why low mileage cars are sometimes trouble, as they aren't used enough... Still, I would rather have a low mileage car than a high mileage..

And as the others have said, and as I told you previously in your other thread, low refrigerant will cause the clutch not to work. So get the possibility of a bad clutch/compressor out of your brain. Its simply the matter of the system leaking, going low on fluid that is causing your problem.

Mine has no A/C at the moment, as my compressor is bad. (Stalls the belt/squeals bad when it tries to engage) I have a replacement laying in my tool box but have been too lazy to install it yet. One of these days I will get it swapped. Probably will rebuild the compressor anyway, install new seals, etc, just to be safe prior to installing.

Your car does NOT have to have A/C to be useable. As others have said, its an optional comfort, not a requirement. Mine runs perfectly fine without it.