How to Determine if your Audi is Actually Short of Refrigerant

[mboucher70 at hotmail.com]

It turns out that Duracool is packaged with a gauge for measuring the 
refrigerant pressure, as well as high-side and low side adapters if you need 
them.  I picked up a package today and followed the instructions to measure 
the low side pressure.  The gauge is color coded and indicates, the 
following ranges:

0-25psi: low (green)
25-45psi: filled (blue)
45-65psi: alert (yellow)
over 65: warning (red)

I fitted the low side adapter, started the engine and turned the AC on, let 
it run a few minutes, and atached the gauge.  To my surprise, the pressure 
read 155psi, dropping to 150 when the compressor cycled off.  When the AC 
and the car were shut off, the pressure slowly dropped to about 70psi, and 
never went below.

Car is an Audi 100 1990.  The adapter that I'm using is labelled as the low 
pressure adapter.  I'm connecting to the only visible 'filling' adapter, 
which is mounted in front of the AC/radiator, just behind the driver's side 
headlight bulb.

Car was bought 9 years ago, used.  It is original R12 (no conversion).  No 
refrigerant has been added since I bought it.  Is it possible that someone 
over-filled it by a factor of 3 (150 vs 45) and its still functional?

Any ideas?


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <kentmclean at comcast.net>
To: <quattro at audifans.com>
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2008 7:03 AM
Subject: Re: How to Determine if your Audi is Actually Short of Refrigerant


mboucher70 wrote:
> Short of taking a car to an AC shop, what is a good method to determine if
> its actually short of  refrigerant?

I bought the gauges needed to test the AC from my local auto parts place
(not a national consumer chain one, but one that services the local trade).
It cost about $100.  You can get a cheaper one at Harbor Freight:

<http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=92649>

--
Kent McLean
'99 A4 Avant
'91 200 Avant
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