Can anyone verify what the low-side port on the Aircon system looks like?

[crispin]

I have a 97, which I believe came from the factory with R134a. The air is not blowing very cold, so my first step is to check the pressure / recharge the refridgerant.

After a few searches on Prime & the WWW, I was all set to charge it up with a can of R134a from Walmart, and came to hook up the can to the low-side port. But although the high-side port clearly looked like the correct sort of fitting, the low side port did not.

What I was expecting was a fitting with concentric rings, similar to a standard shop air-line fitting but smaller, ready to take the hose supplied with the can. In fact the low-side was a small (~ 1/4" dia) valve with a central hole and a hex portion to it's lower-body. This valve was screwed into a flange on the low-side pipe.

Although I could with some finessing get the re-charger hose to connect onto it, it did not fill me with confidence, so I thought I'd ask if anyone could verify what an NA2 is 'supposed' to look like


I will post a pic when I get back later this week.

 

[Daedalus]

Fittings past 1993 are all the same.

 

[crispin]

Thanks, very helpful!

This confirms my suspicion - my Highside is definitely the quick-connectr R134, but the low-side actually looks different from the drawing. I'll post a pic later this week.

Meantime, am I right that a 97 should be R134 from the factory?

 

[Daedalus]

Yes, by federal law, all US-sold cars after 1993 have R-134a and must have the same high/low-side fitting interfaces. It wouldn't make sense to change them.

 

[ftuhy]

Benn there/done that last year. When standing in front of the car and looking at the master cylinder, its the fitting just to the left of and below the master cylinder. Its the fitting covered by the white hexagon in the second picture.

In my case, the refrigerant level was fine. It turned out the cable connection on the heater core valve had slipped over the years and needed adjustment. Let me know if you need a reference on how to adjust that cable so that hot water flow to the heater core is indeed turned off when the AC is on.

 

[crispin]

Thanks for the posts & advice. What I was looking at previously was NOT the low side port, but the bleed valve on the aircon low-side line. The diagrams & pictures helped me locate the low-side port - yay! Will top off system and see where that gets us.

Sadly the CCU is also displaying the 'classic' fan only runs on high symptom, so I'll need to remove and send to BrianK for re-furb. I'm hopeful these 2 fixes will get me back to a fully functional aircon system.

Crispin

 

[crispin]

Just to wrap up on this thread, I ended up failing to have any real success getting R134a into the port, so I went to my local mechanic who did an excellent job. He diagnosed a leaking schrader valve and fixed it plus topped off the system for $100.

Since I still had the 'fan only runs on high' symptom, I used the instructions on BrianK's web site to dissect the centre console (very clear, they really made the job easy) removed the CCU and 1 week later BrianK returned it. I now have a fully functional Aircon system!

Thanks to those who helped with advice / pix, and thanks to BrianK for the final fix on the CCU.