HI, I had my A/C charged in my 2002 corvette about 7 month ago.. And after they charged it, it still never felt that cold, they did tell me they put some kind of dye in the charge and if the A/C starts getting warmer,To bring it back so they can check it for any leaks..ok its been about 7 month and i have not been useing it tell i tried it yesterday, And it feels just a little cool but it could be just the fan motor blowing on my hand..so i checked it with a temp gauge and it read like 68deg, Thats not good..so since its been like 7 month or so, can they still tell if it has a leak and were?..By the dye they said they used?..And it cost me like $135..But summer is comming and i need it working..What do you guys think it is?..And will the dye still show them were the leak is?..

Thanks dbiddle

 

Hi - If all of the refrigerant has leaked out, then no, it obviously won't help anybody find the leak. This is probably the case. If there wasn't any refrigerant in the system when they charged it for you 7 months ago, it should have indicated the leak needed to be found and repaired then. Or you'd be in the situation you're in now. Small leaks can be a bear to find. I believe leak detector devices can be used also to help pinpoint where the leak is.

 

If they put dye in it, it should help them find it. That's sort of the point of the dye. I don't know about 7 months later though, especially if you're one to keep the engine clean religiously.

 

What you can do is, recharge w/ dye and check after 2 weeks.
And they can use an electronic sniffer, and check after charging.

 

Refrigerant does not get consumed or used up. It simply changes states inside the system. There are only 3 ways you can be low on refrigerant.
1) The manufacturer did not put enough in to begin with
2) Someone has deliberately removed some
3) There is a leak in the system (99% of the time this is the reason)

Note: Leaks do not fix themselves, nor do they get smaller.

The dye that was put in your system will glow under UV light the way a black light poster does. The problem is leaks are not always in a visible place, an electronic leak detector will at least give them a location to search if not find the leak it's self.
Most people will just go ahead and keep charging up their system because of cost. Having a leak repaired will be very expensive (if done properly) because of all the add on charges like recovery fees , disposal fees, evacuation, ect.
Bet you 're wishing you had a warranty about now eh?

 

From my experience, most a/c problems are caused by leaks in the a/c system. what most people do, is charge the system up to specs so they can make sure that it works properly, then check for leaks with an electronic sniffer. Most leaks can be found with the sniffer, but some are hard to find, and an a/c dye can be injected into the system, when this dye leaks from the system, the tech can use a blacklight and tinted glasses that come with the light, and anywhere that the dye is leaking will show up with the blacklight.

some leaks are hard to see withought teardown, it is very hard to see the evaporator core without some teardow, right?

most techs will spend some easy time checking everything under the hood for leaks first. just by running the leak detector along all of the ac lines, the compressor, the condensor, and the accumulator. If you are unable to find any leaks under the hood, what does that leave? well of course we are back to that evaporator....

leaks are pretty easy to diagnose, from a techs stand point. it is usually the cost of the repair that makes you wonder if the customer will fix it or not.

I live in south texas, so people would just about always fix their a/c. most a/c jobs we did were usually around the $1000 range. some were more, some were less...

A simple check out with 134a and dye would usually run about $125-175

Most manufatcures state that it is "normal" for the ac system to leak .5 lb a year. we all know that is BS but i think they say it to cover theirself from buybacks and some warranty work.

Its the same thing they say when they are talking about engine oil conmsumption ..