A/C help needed O/T

[papabug71]

Mods, if it's in the wrong place, please feel free to move this thread

OK, on the wife's '03 Chevy Trailbalzer, the A/C has gone out. Let me start off by syaing, 3 years ago I put a new A/C compressor on it after the factory unit locked up. It was taken to a A/C shop & they pulled vaccum on it & recharged the system. It's worked fine untill yeasterday. She came home yeasterday saying she noticed a loud "Wooshing" sound & the A/C had quit blowing cold air. I start inspecting everything & noticed the over pressure valve on the back side of the compressor had blown, spraying the compressor oil all over the place & bled all of the freon out. Im assuming the system was in a state of overpressure or the valve was defective. She did turn the A/C off when she noticed something was wrong thank God, otherwise im sure the compressor would have locked up.

I SHOULD be able to replace the over pressure valve, refill the compressor with PAG oil & take it to a shop to have it put under vaccum & recharged & all SHOULD be well... What do you guys think?

[1972hiboy]

Luckily even if she had kept the a/c on the low pressure switch would have disengagaed the compressor clutch for that very reason. Im not sure if those valves are serviceable on the compressor. but if it is and it was only defective then you should be able to get it recharged after a new one is installed. I wouldnt put any oil in the system before the vacuum it down. they may suck some of it out and they may want to add the amount they want to the system to stand behind any warrantee they may make on the labor.

[papabug71]

Thanks for the speedy reply Rich. Yup, the valve is servicable. It's a thread in valve. I've found them, & at $94 bucks each I wouldn't want to replace too many of them.

Im hoping I can go the easy route on this one. A/C stuff adds up quick when you get into replacing major components.

[1972hiboy]

wow 94 bucks really? that does seem a lil steep.... a/c stuff to me is getting new parts and putting them on...but Im not the one footing the bill so it kinda distorts reality for me. Too bad you werent closer I could get the part discounted and recharge it here at the shop.....

[mr_josh]

94 bucks is kind of a lot of money to spend on guessing that the valve went bad.

My money says that when the compressor went bad, it contaminated the system with crud and something's clogged:

http://www.ackits.com/c/BlackDeath/Auto ... eath).html

[papabug71]

Called the A/C guys & they said not to mess with it till they have a look. All the A/C shops are booked up solid with the record heat. Looks like it will be Monday of next week.

Im just going to let them deal with it