Air conditioning leak

[mrsofa]

Hey,
I'm starting a thread where I will be diagnosing my non working AC system.

I have couple of questions about it, also I will post my workflow, maybe it will come in handy to someone.

So first off, are there any common know leaking places where I can start?
I will check the condenser (front radiator) first. Also did some googling and I saw a compressor can leak too?

So far all I did was vacuum the system. After a day it was still holding the vacuum, after that I filled it up with 15bar of nitrogen. After 3 days the gas escaped somehow. Now my next step is to take off a easily accesible ac hose and pour in some compressor oil with coloring. For the 2004 2.0 i'ts compressor oil type PAG46. I don't know how much to pour in, for a bmw e36 it was 150ml, so i'm going with 50ml assuming it still has some oil in the system.

Before my ownership, someone unplugged the ac compressor fuse 16 under the bonnet. Beats me why, maybe because it wasn't working, I just hope the compressor isn't dead, The car has 80k km on the counter.

[IanL]

I assume you will be refilling with refrigerant to get your colourant around the system.

I think I read somewhere that nitrogen molecules are very small, so quite possibly they would leak out. If the system has not been pressurised and used for some time, the seals could have deteriorated, and may need renewal.

As a matter of interest, how do you come to have the vacuum pump, nitrogen, etc? I have a car with defunct aircon and could be interested in following in your footsteps.

[mrsofa]

I assume you will be refilling with refrigerant to get your colourant around the system.
As a matter of interest, how do you come to have the vacuum pump, nitrogen, etc? I have a car with defunct aircon and could be interested in following in your footsteps.

I was refiling it with nitrogen for now, you must not turn on the ac or you will destroy the compressor.
My work is part of maintaining large ac units, so we have some equipment, but car ac system are a lot more different, so I'm winging it ..

Okay so When I added the nitrogen again I sprayed soapy water on all of the hoses and instantly I saw bubbling at the dryer. It was the right hose, I took it off and someone was fiddling with it. One seal wasn't the same as the other.


Left is the new one I just, center is the OEM, the right one that someone replaced and was leaking.

It's stupid because the seal I bought is the original for the car and you can see it's completely different.
I will order a new dryer because the old one is corroded on the holes and try installing it with those seals anyhow.