AC Leak found...now what?

[ab_slack]

It looks like the inlet valve on the low pressure side of my BIIs AC is leaking slowly. Not a major leak but refrigerant is slowly leaking out.

What is my best option for dealing with this?

 

[Jamessprouse]

It looks like the inlet valve on the low pressure side of my BIIs AC is leaking slowly. Not a major leak but refrigerant is slowly leaking out.

What is my best option for dealing with this?

Are you saying the valve on low side where you add freon ?

 

[ab_slack]

Are you saying the valve on low side where you add freon ?

Yep that one. Which was tricky to find because adding dye puts lots of dye there. Anyway a balloon placed over it does inflate so I know it is leaking gas.

 

[Sasquatch_Ryda]

Tried tightening the core?

 

[97RangerXLT]

Replacing the valve is easy...but you need to evacuate the system. Part is cheap too. Try tightening up the valve first. That might fix it. Then put a new cap on it. That might also fix it and you won't need to evacuate the system. Try your balloon test with the new cap in place

AJ

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk

 

[Chris_North]

Did you lose the plastic service cap? Not saying it'll stop the leak but it's definitely slow it...

 

[ab_slack]

No, haven't lost the cap.

I never messed with a Schrader valve before. Forgot that the cores on them can be replaced. I will see about tightening it.

 

[cvar]

. Try your balloon test with the new cap in place

Clever idea! Mine leaks at both high & low side service ports, but it has ball-valves instead of schrader valves. (Fails soap bubble test). So I just used caps that have a built-in rubber O-ring. I'll try your balloon trick, to see how well these caps are sealed. I'll replace both ball-valves next time it needs to be evacuated.

They do make a special tool for replacing A/C schrader valve cores without evacuating. This tool is cheaper than paying to evacuate A/C. Details at http://mike-thomson.com/blog/?p=1234

 

[sblake01]

I have a pair of those amongst my HVAC tools. One for the low side and the larger one for the high side. However, those won't work on the R12 type screw on valves nor do they work on ball valves; only on the standard R134 valves.