K-Spaz

Autozone now wants $138.99 for those actuators. What a racket. It's the same damn thing as the manual one for $40 (which they make copious money on also) all with an added pot, 2 extra pins on the board and a pinout difference.

Anybody wonder why I replaced the gear in mine?

Chuck A

quick maybe stupid question if you do not use your AC can you lose the charge my gaskets drying up? i recently had a AC compressor replaced because they said it was bad, of course today i tried turning AC on the AC light came on but no cold air, any ideas?

ZZ06

Did they replace the refrigerant after the compressor? What shop did this without checking their own work first? Either they didn't replace what was lost or you have a severe leak. I would be taking it back

Chuck A

yea that is why the didnt charge me for redoing putting freon in the system again, will wait and see when i bring it back again, hoping for the best

Markm10431

Finally got around to buying the part, but when I stasted the car to take it to the guy doing the work, I noticed nothing but hot air from all vents.

I'm thinking now maybe I have a leak, so I wanted to ask one more question.. if the blend door is bad will the HVAC throw a code? my DIC is code free except a couple U codes in RFA

RXPX

Sorry if I misunderstood your post. You're saying you bought a manual actuator and used the gear off of it to install into yours? That's awesome and good to know!

Markm10431

well, it's not the blend door. on a whim i bought some refrigerant and checked the levels (A friend had borrowed the car and said the tech at the dealership he works at said the levels were fine) well, the levels were very low, and took easily 10 oz. both sides were blowing cold. when i disconnected, i noticed there was some leakage in the valve, so i am confident that it is the problem. so i do need to take her to a shop and have a service done, assuming that valve is replaceable... how much should i be looking at??

Trios

Which valve? If it's the fill valve, it's a Schrader valve, very similar to the one in your tires. The part itself won't cost hardly anything, but the shop will need to evacuate the system and refill it. I'd ask them what the cost is to evac & fill, and replace the valve myself in between them doing that. Otherwise they're going to want to do 'troubleshooting' and charge 'diagnostic fees' and whatnot.

EDIT: Was looking into this more, evidently you can get to replace the valve core easily, without losing (much) refrigerant. I suspect HVAC shops probably have these on hand, if so they should be able to replace the valve core really cheap. If it's going to cost you more than the cost of this tool, buy the tool and do it yourself...

Markm10431

the tires plus across the street from work will replace both valves, high and low, evac and recharge for $175. robbery I am sure but after 60 I feel a full service like that is good for the system, and I consider it money well spent to enjoy her as my primary driver.

my lesson learned for this exercise is
1. trust the codes, I never had one so i was looking at coolant the entire time
2. don't trust friends who have "Connections"
3. ok to try refilling and such, but know when to let the pros do the entire job right