OK, I'm at a loss on what to do with this a/c problem. I have drained the old freon out and put more in using the $25 Recharge kit from Wal-Mart. I hardly put any in and checked the guage that came with it and it said it was in the "perfect" zone. I don't think I used enough because I anly filled for about a minute or less. The guage now reads at about 65-70 PSI. Does this sound right to anyone? Should I keep going or not? I want to do this myself to gain experience incase this happens again. How do I check the compressor, clutch, and or anything else that could be the problem?

 

i know you need a certin amount of pressure for the clutch to close if it not enough it will not close.

 

The air conditioning system is not something you usually want to mess with if you dont know what your doing. it can get quite dangerous. First you said you let the old gas out? Why? If you system was not functioning but there was still gas in it chances are it was not leaking espceially on a newer car like that. In order to put new gas in to an empty system you need to create some sort of a vacuum to dry out any moisture and to aid in the adding of the new gas. Those walmart kits are really for topping off. To top off you run the a/c system while you are charging it but there needs to be gas in the system to run it. If the gas was low enough for the system not to run you need to jump the pressure switch usually located ontop of the receiver dryer. At this point though i dont thikn that would be a good idea as you might fry your compressor. The gas carries lubrication in it for the whole system and if there is no gas there is no lubrication which will cause horrible things to happen.
If you decide to try again be very careful. That can of R-134a is like a grenade if the pressure gets too high. Recharging is usually done with a set of manifold gauges that monitor this pressure accurately.

 

thanks, I'll take it to a shop.