mel_t_vin

I accidentally posted this in the turbo sub-forum and decided to post the questions here for exposure and future reference.


Is it worth it to have a mobile tech come to a house to ascertain the condition of an HVAC system for $60, $50 of which would be applied to any required repairs?

Why not simply drive to a shop, you may wonder? Well, it's not my car and currently not tagged.

In any case, I suspect putting the system on vacuum is not difficult. And charging the system is probably not difficult, either. But, on the driveway, in the elements, without a lift, wouldn't it be relatively difficult to determine the origin of leaks [even with fluorescent dye] to do a proper/adequate repair, if necessary?

Pcarnut711

What vehicle are you referring to?

V2Rocket

putting the system under vacuum overnight is a good way to tell how much the system is leaking "big leak or small leak".
for not a whole lot more you can buy a set of AC manifold gauges, i cant tell you how useful my set has been (especially since the 944 has needed a lot of AC work and there are 3 other older cars in my family)

if there is a leak the first repair step would be to go through and replace the O-rings in the system. they are cheap and not hard to do for most of them. if it still leaks after that then chances are it is one of the hoses attached to the compressor/condenser, a pinhole leak in the condenser itself, or the compressor shaft seal.

mel_t_vin

Spencer, that's what I would've surmised...key word being overnight.

Do you think it's worth the effort [or $$$] for a mobile tech to come out, for an hour or two, to try and evaluate/troubleshoot the system? Could/would this exercise yield much meaningful results/information?