did it hurt?

i'm asking because i just went to midas to ask how much it is to decharge the a/c system... funny story actually:

"hi, i'm wondering how much you guys charge to take the freon out of the car"
"that's 119 dollars"
"119 dollars?? to take freon out?"
"yep, for an a/c flush and refill its 120 bucks"
"no no, you must have misunderstood, i just want the freon OUT of the car, i don't want to recharge it."
"why would you want to do that?"
"i'm taking the a/c out of the car"

at this point shes got the strangest look on her face, probably wondering what idiot would take his a/c out of his car living in south florida.

"hang on a minute" she walks out to the garage, talks to the mechanic a sec, and comes back.
"he'll take it out for you, just pull on in"
"free?"
"yeah, but you can tip him if you want"
"cool, thanks a lot"

so i pull in, he does his thing with the hoses, i wait a few mins and voila, the freon is gone. i slip him a 10 for taking 5 mins out of his time replacing a muffler on an old Volvo, and i'm on my way.

thing is i'm sure not ALL the freon is out, i know those gauges can lie. so i try the a/c coming home, sure enough it just blows air now. so now i'm in the process of remoning the a/c, from what i read its pretty straight forward, just unbolt everything and plug the firewall holes. my question is, IF there is any freon left, where would it be, like around what connection or component? and is the stuff anything like that compressed air in a can (i use these at work a lot), if you've ever held one upside down and sprayed it on your skin for a couple secs, you eventually get frostbite. is freon as bad as that, i'm just asking for precautions, i dont want to get surprised when i'm taking a line out or something and freon comes shooting out at me

 

The system was depressurized, so if any is left, it's probably not going to come shooting out at you (I'm no a/c expert, but it just makes sense).

 

makes sense. if there is any left, would it be floating around in the lines or stuck at one of the components somewhere?

 

Just check one of the schrader valves. Push in the needle and see if any escapes. Same as letting air out of a tire.I'm certain it's all out, but just to be sure. Freon is dangerous and you must be careful if system charged. If it's charged and a line lets go, hits your eyes, no more driving. It's a gas so it would be spread evenly around the system, so if it's empty you won't have any running out, like a liquid.

 

^ sounds painful!

the schrader valves are the two valves that the a/c machine gets plugged into, right? (one small cap, one little).

 

That's correct. One is on the low side, one on the high side.

 

You know why the mechanic drained it for free? You gave about $120.00 worth of R-12 freon. There should be no pressure in the system if he pumped it out just watch for spillng the refrigerant oil when you remove the compressor.

 

When I removed by AC and I wasn't sure if the system was pressurized, I wore safety gogles, heavy gloves and kept myself out of the line of fire by cutting the line with large tin snips. Turns out it wasn't pressurized. Yours shouldn't be pressurized though.

 

well i have everything out cept the compressor and the pump itself, the lower two bolts holding it onto the bracket are hard to reach to say the least. those metal lines are very bendable too..

as for the compressor im gonna save that for when i have more time since you need to take out the radiator to get to it

 

compressor = pump

im assuming you meant the condensor in front of the radiator and the compressor, right

 

You don't have to take out the radiator to get to it, at least I didn't have to anyway. Remove the panels that funnel air to your radiator, the ones that are by your hood latch. If your coolant overflow is in this area, you probably need to remove that as well. Unbolt your the little brace that your hood latch is attached to, set it aside with the cable still attached. Unbolt the condensor (or whatever it's called) and slip it upwards.

 

^ yep, thats what i meant, the condensor

after about two hours i have everything out except that, i will definitely try that strategy Gatlin, thanks! it looks very empty now with the a/c and p/s gone.

 

my condensor was the biggest pain in the *** to remove, didnt just slip out. It took a crowbar and 3 stitches to get her out. This is all after i took the radaitor out to.

 

Getting blasted with freon isn't too bad. A buddy and I were working on removing and replacing some A/C components in class. Two other guys had started the job and we learned the hard way that they didn't start the car and run it before starting. We ran a vaccum on it but since they didn't run it before we started there was still some freon in it. I was removing a spring lock and my friend got blasted in the face when it came off and my arm got blasted pretty damn good too. It wasn't too bad. Needless to say we were pissed off.

Edit: Saftey glasses are the ****.

 

and for the record there was like 1oz of freon left in it =p

i started by removing the pipe bomb looking thing near the coolant overflow tank and once i had one side unscrewed i heard a little 'pshhh' kinda like a mini blow off valve =p from there on it went pretty smooth. that pump is freaking HEAVY! i picked it up to move it off the grass and dropped in on my bare foot, not from high up but high enough =\

 

Just be careful, unscrew the connector very very slowly..., and wear gloves and a long sleeve shirt, and if it does something unpleasant, back away
There's been a refridgerant accident in the shop here before and it scared the **** out of everyone around it.