what's going on guys back with another video
we're gonna be uh checking out our ac system my car's been doing some funny things lately
funny things all the time actually but um we're gonna do some ac troubleshooting today
summer is upon us and i really need to get the ac fixed just because i got the little guy now
riding with me and i want him to be cool at all times just in case so i had more motivation
this time around to get it fixed properly hopefully we can get this ac fixed longer than 20
minutes and uh we can kind of find the leak and troubleshoot and fix the problem so let's go ahead
and get started i'm gonna replace some o-rings on the high pressure and low side today i'm hoping
that's where the leak may be um i can also you know inject some ac dye into the whole system
make it a little easier but i'm actually gonna be using some r134a stop leak today along with
another one just in case if i don't have enough so we have a couple things here and i was
reading in this in my good old user manual here a little procedure on how to do it and what
to do what not to do here's the o-rings that i purchased through subaru i got both o-rings
one for the high and low side of the ac system it's really just a little dinky guy there
and then another little dinky guy there i swapped in some o-rings i had laying around but
i never even tested the system but i wanted to go ahead and order the correct ones that way i know
for sure those are the right ones and those are the ones that should be sealing so i couldn't
blame it on the ones i had laying around so and yeah we're going to see if those are going to
work out for us just going to remove this shroud so i can see the ac compressor a little easier
before you unscrew this high pressure port to check the o-ring um you're going to want to make
sure that your high pressure oh my god there it went there it is right there could have lost it
forever a little slippery salamander so before we go on ahead and take off these two ports to change
the o-rings you're going to want to make sure that your high pressure line has zero pressure in it
or else this thing will just blow off my case i had no pressure in the line because i have a leak
somewhere it's kind of like a bike tire tube where you can just push in that little needle and it
should release any pressure but beware it is toxic and you should probably not do it you should
probably consult your nearest ac professional before you do any of that you want to be in a
well ventilated area you want eye protection you know ear protection face protection whatever
all kinds of protection before you go on ahead and release that i don't believe you can actually
release that legally so never mind what i said so make sure this is depressurized hopefully you have
you know a leak in the system and you won't have to worry about that like my case so let's move on
so this high pressure side over here is going to be a 12 millimeter and as well as the low pressure
side is going to be a 12 millimeter as well there we go let's take a look at the o-ring
there's that one i'm just going to remove the o-ring with the little pick that i got here the
original o-ring that i switched out actually broke in half and i ended up losing it so i couldn't
really compare the size so that was another way oh see like that i almost just dropped it i
didn't drop it so i'm glad that i did go with the oem ones just because i can already see a
difference in the sizes i just was eyeballing it and you can clearly see the green one that i put
in there was a little bit smaller than the oem correct size so we're gonna go on ahead and get
this new one swapped in and i'm gonna apply a little bit of grease or like silicone a little
bit of silicone grease i guess just so the o-ring doesn't get damaged when i press it back on i
just put a real light layer on there nothing crazy so i'm just gonna kind of stretch
this over the port from the front pretty straight forward i'd say just like that
o-ring is on there's a new o-ring looking good just going to gently press
this back into place make sure your port is looking clean just going to wipe
down on the inside of this hole a little bit make sure there's no debris in there that way your
o-ring will do its job correctly just going to press this back in gently you'll feel the o-ring
seat into place put our screw back in snug it up not too tight all right moving on to the
low pressure side remove the 12 mil bolt let's remove this from the port
there's our o-ring swap this one out here's our low pressure side it was pretty
close in size here but you could tell it's just slightly different so again i'm glad i
went with the oem size same thing going to lube it up a little bit get it back in place
see if we can work this one on stretch it on there we go same thing put it back into place
gently push it on and the bolt goes back in just snug all right so far it's about a
three dollar investment with the new o-rings so can't really go wrong with that i'm hoping
it's not really too significant you know i'm hoping it's just a small little leak and
uh it's not going to be the ac compressor itself because that'd be pretty pricey i'd
say but before i go ahead and recharge the system i was reading in my owner's manual
better yet i was reading in my what is this service manual yeah service manual okay so i
was reading my service manual and i found out so if you look down here this is going to
be your pressure switch for the whole ac system and that tells your ac compressor to kick
on when there's proper pressure in the system so before we actually start filling the system i'm
going to run a jumper wire and it'll tell the car that there's proper pressure in the system and
it will go on ahead and kick on the ac compressor like constantly i'm just going to move
my little coolant overflow reservoir here just presses in right there and then comes out
i'm just going to rotate it to give myself some more room here so it's basically just one little
clip on the bottom side here that you're going to push in just be real careful with it because
mine's kind of rusted and i'm sure yours is too she's an old girl and we got to be careful it's
a pretty stiff connector though so you just got to press in this tab here and it should release
for you i mean i'm sure a paperclip would be much easier and i don't have one at the moment so i'm
just going to use this little black wire here i think it's extra from my stereo install let's go
ahead and get this connected here and i'll show you what's next so i have one end of the wire into
the connector there the other end is right up here so when i actually have the ac engaged i'm gonna
go on ahead and put the other end of the wire in the connector here and then the clutch should
turn on over on this side of the car you'll find your low pressure port that's where you're going
to actually recharge the system so let's go ahead and unscrew that i'm going to go for the regular
refrigerant first before trying the stop leak so we're going with the autozone favorite r134a
refrigerant going with this reusable pressure gauge as well nice thing is about these things
that it only actually connects to the correct port so it'll only connect to the low pressure port
you won't be able to get it onto the high pressure port so you can't really mess this up so basically
on this thing there's a little dial that you can twist to the ambient temperature outside say
it's about 68 degrees in my garage right now so i want to rotate it between 65 and 70 and then
that's where you're going to want to stop when the gauge reads in between those red lines right
at the arrow in the middle so pretty straight forward let's go ahead and open the garage and
get to pumping i'm gonna go in ahead and put this on the low pressure side here you just
pull it put it on kind of like a inner tube there we go okay screwed the bottle on i
guess i'll read the directions real quick done this before pretty much says turn your
ac on max cooling while you're charging the system you want to hold the can upright rotating
cam between 12 and 3 o'clock every two to three seconds while continuously agitating shaking can
back and forth so i pretty much just go like this one last little note be sure to put back your
little reservoir here or else it will hit on the fans when these things kick on so just be sure to
just put this back so it's out of the way the fans all right kick on the ac max ac show you guys
this little trick here so i'm going to touch the wire onto the other side of the port and the ac
compressor should kick on just watch your fingers there it goes and the fans kick on as well so i'm gonna wedge this in there
pretty good and then start filling there it goes hand starts to get really cold all
right we're holding about 10 psi now 15 cans almost feeling empty at this point about 25 psi all right i think we're empty
we're just getting to the green on here oh we are blowing cold that's for sure definitely
ice cold in here but again if it's going to be temporary that's not what i want i don't want
it to be temporary because that's what happened last time a little jumper wire can probably
be removed and hopefully the high pressure sensor is working but yeah we got one full can in
the system just remove the hose putting on the cap now i guess i'll let you guys know that the ac
sticks around stay tuned next morning moment of truth will the ac fire up let's check it
out i mean granted it is 55 degrees outside the ac does still feel really cold so the only
real test is going to be later on today when it heats up but as of right now we have ac r134a
still in the system and i'm very happy about that so stay tuned we'll see what happens all
right all right here's the moment of truth it is the next day late afternoon time to
check the ac hopefully it is still blowing cold we will see here we go right now real
time i'm gonna figure this out start her up okay we are at 64 degrees outside
which is still a little chilly but uh let's go ahead and throw this on hit the ac we should hear it kick on all right so far so good he is blown cold
baby we are holding steady with the cold ac so i'll update you guys a little later if anything
changes but if not hell yeah brother we fix the problem just like that ac remain cold all the
way home granted it's about five minute drive but i mean either way i'll take the win so we are
holding steady with the ac tune in tomorrow and uh i'll update you guys again but so far so good okay
day two let's see if our ac is still kicking on ac blasting oh i feel it chilling i feel
the chill coming so we are holding steady in the system it's a wonderful feeling that's
for sure man i can't wait to use this ac on those hot summer days but i think this actually
uh these o-rings actually fixed my problem and i couldn't be more happy so far as a three
dollar o-ring fix minus the can of r134a but other than that i mean i am excited about that
all right stay tuned we'll see what happens all right just getting her warmed up
here it's a whopping 66 degrees outside we'll flip on this ac here 65 and engage give it a second i think
i already feel it changing oh yeah baby it's already getting cold that's what i'm
talking about that's what i'm talking about here's another test it's been about a month since
i swapped out those o-rings on the ac compressor and we're gonna kick on the ac and uh hopefully
it kicks on for us here oh ac is blowing to the face and the feet and we are chilling still
chilling all right guys that's gonna do it for this video you really can't beat a three dollar
o-ring fix minus the cost of the refrigerant but still i mean it's a win-win in my book so thanks
for checking out the video hope it can help you out and uh yeah give it a try for yourself i mean
it's three bucks could be a cheap fix go on ahead and try it for yourself alright guys take it easy
thanks for watching see you on the next one you
