I’ve been enjoying the summer with my A/C making me feel
cool. Yet, people who ride with me would complain that I need to recharge my Freon
because my car is over 10yrs old and probably needs it by now. Silly me, I listened
to them even though my car works fine(after $1500 worth of work-it should!), I
thought I’d just improve it because maybe I’m just wrong.
So this weekend, I got a hose with pressure gauge and
self-refilled my Freon. It isn’t that hard, at all. But I noticed that when I
did, my AC stopped working. I went to a national auto parts/repair ‘big box’
place and the service tech said it sounds like I overfilled my system w/Freon,
but he didn’t have an AC specialist.
So with a car full of people, heading for a day trip out to
the country, I found myself standing at a giffy loob arguing with the manager.
“I can hook it up to our machine, check for leaks, that’s
$35. If there’s no leak, we can remove the Freon and refill it, but it’s not
like we can just take a bit off. Our machine takes out all the old Freon and
refills it completely.”
I’m holding my tongue, whatever, I put the Freon in and the
valve looks like an air valve with a pin in the center, which if it works like
a tire valve, you just push in and it releases. So why can’t they just release
some Freon?
“So how much is that?” I asked.
“$119 and takes about 30-45mins.”
I contemplate this, talk it over with a friend and decide it
just takes too long, we’re supposed to meet up with other people and I just can’t
see why it would cost so much.
So we had jammed into someone else’s car.
This morning, I called my mechanic and explained my
situation.
“Yup, you over filled it, just release some.” He said.
“The Freon? How?”
“Just release it from the valve.”
“Like a tire valve?”
“Yup, just stick a screwdriver. Try that.”
I thanked him and this evening I tried it.
There are two valves in my AC, H and L, high and low
pressure. To fill the Freon, you use the L valve. It looks just like a tire air
valve. You can now buy an AC hose with attached pressure gauge that tells you
the air pressure. It’s color coded to show you the levels your Freon should be.
The gauge showed that I was in the red area, SO THAT’S WHAT
THE RED IS FOR!!!
So as the car ran with the AC on high-it’s the only way the Freon
will circulate-I stuck the tip of my pliers into the valve and pushed down and
watched the Freon gush out in puffs of white gas, soaking my hand and pliers
with the greasy smelly Freon. After what seemed like a good few seconds, I
stopped and checked the pressure again. It was now full.
I went inside my car and glorious cold air was blasting
through my vents.
It literally took 10mins and I saved myself $119.
This is the year I take control of my life. Today, I took
care of my car. Another check off my list!
