AC broken just in time for a trip

[JPaul]

Fun times. AC was starting to barely work during city driving. Today it decided to stop working period. Seems like the charge was low, only getting 10psi on the low side and at first only 50 psi on the high side. Started filling it back up and the high side shot up to 250psi eventually and then stayed there. Low side remained at 10psi. Got up to 300psi on the high side but still 10psi on the low.

Based on what I can find it's most likely the thermal expansion valve is stuck closed. Condenser was replaced a few years ago and was working great after that. Ordered a new valve that will be in tomorrow fortunately. Now I have to get a couple more cans of r134a and rent a vacuum pump. Finally bought a gauge set today to test and monitor the refill. Glad I did or I would have been left guessing. Might have to buy a vacuum pump too one of these days.

Of course I have a camping trip I leave for on Saturday, and I have to drive the H3 down to Salt Lake on Wednesday so that I can drop my daughter off for her mountain biking practice in the morning on the way down. It's friggin hot this week too. 100 degree days. Not that I'll get any pity from the people who live in hell, er, Pheonix.

 

[alrock]

No pity.

Okay, a bit of pity. That sucks, good luck with the repair.

 

[deserth3]

As dry a it is out here. You could get away with removing the old freon. Disconnect and immediately plug the lines. Then install the new valve and recharge the system. Trick is to limit as much as possible how much moisture and atmosphere that is able to enter the system.
I've done it on an old chevy blazer that blew a hose and never had a problem after. I replaced the line . Added a partial charge then cracked a nut to purge that hose.
If you think it isn't running well enough you can already vacuum and recharge when you have time.

 

[lfootmatt]

LOL, Just drove my oldest son's H3 Alpha form Kansas to Phoenix. AC was on the struggle bus across SW Kansas, OK, TX, and NM. Topped it off with cheapo can and that helped, but at 110 out it didn't matter much! Now its in Phoenix, headed to my buddy's shop tomorrow for sunroof drains fixed, AC fixed, and seats and carpet out detail job.

The AC has to work flawlessly in AZ!!!

Good luck!

Matt

 

[JPaul]

Picked up all the parts I need today (hopefully). New expansion valve and drier/accumulator (even though I replaced the condenser/accumulator a few years ago). Also have to replace the high pressure port since it just used that dumb rubber ball or whatever to seal and it got wrecked this last time around and leaks now.

I think I had too much oil in the system, the high pressure port had pooled up oil in it overnight after testing yesterday, and when I removed the expansion valve today there was quite a bit of oil in it. So I'll be pulling the compressor out and draining it of oil and rented the flush kit and bought a quart of flush cleaner and will give everything a good cleanout. Hopefully by doing it right this time (I didn't flush when replacing the condenser since it was a pinhole leak that was sudden) and making sure I have the right amount of oil and refrigerant in there it should work a lot better and stay that way longer than a few years.

 

[JPaul]

Got the rest of it apart today. Started to try to remove the compressor completely but realized all I needed to really do was turn it upside down to drain the oil. When I did that though barely anything came out, despite turning the rotor several times. Guessing that is why there was so much oil in the rest of the system, it apparently all got pumped out of the compressor. Not sure what that means though.

Now I need to get the system flushed out and put back together and recharged, all hopefully by end of day today since I really need to use the H3 tomorrow to drive to Salt Lake which would suck so bad without AC.

 

[JPaul]

So here's the expansion valve after emptying the system and disconnecting the pipes:

Fortunately the oil looks to be in OK shape, no particles or discoloration there. When I got the compressor loose I did find the oil was a bit darker, but nothing that looked bad enough to make me want to replace the compressor.


And here is why it probably was running out of charge:

Seems someone decided that instead of using the right seals (which I think the TEV was replaced on this previously, especially considering it did NOT come from the factory like that!) they used the correct seal (maybe the old ones?) and decided to also add a green O-ring as well. Which is dumb because the proper seals are the ones with the metal washer to keep the ring from blowing out, so by using a plain O-ring there wasn't really anything keeping the O-ring from expanding and breaking the seal. Unfortunately they not only did this on the suction side like the picture above shows, but they also did it on the high pressure side. I'm amazed it kept the charge for as long as it did.

When I was inspecting everything I did see that there was a leak apparent due to the UV dye showing up under blacklight where the high pressure line went into the TEV.

Hopefully once I can get some new seals tonight for the compressor fittings (they look re-usable, but why tempt fate?) I can get everything flushed, buttoned back up, draw a vacuum, and then recharge it and have nice cold AC again.

 

[lfootmatt]

Shop called, slightly overcharged on freon, but not enough to matter. Contaminated system due to a dying compressor and the OT plugging intermittently. That and pulling the headliner to figure out our water leak. $1450. Ouch!

I admire you tackling the AC system yourself!

Later,

Matt

 

[alrock]

Shop called, slightly overcharged on freon, but not enough to matter. Contaminated system due to a dying compressor and the OT plugging intermittently. That and pulling the headliner to figure out our water leak. $1450. Ouch!

I admire you tackling the AC system yourself!

Later,

Matt

I could've done that for $1400 flat! . Glad you and JPaul are each making progress

 

[JPaul]

So it keeps nagging on me about maybe replacing the compressor. It's at nearly 200K miles and I just went back through the previous owner's notes and saw he replaced the evaporator and the TEV, so that combined with my replacing the condenser makes me think there's likely been enough going on with this system that it'd probably be a good idea to just go ahead and replace it while I have everything apart anyway. Otherwise I worry that I'll get this all done and then even just a year from now or something the compressor will go out and I'll be doing this all over again. *sigh*

Guess I'll run to ORielly sometime today and grab a new compressor too. Might as well get it all refurbished now.

 

[JPaul]

Well, crud. Got the old compressor out and the new one in, then went to start getting ready to flush all the lines and the condenser and evaporator and decided to pull out the new drier/accumulator I picked up last weekend and just noticed that the one I bought is apparently NOT correct for the OEM condenser. The aftermarket condensers use a different style of connection to the drier and it is certainly not compatible with the OEM setup. So I'm kind of screwed at the moment. My options are either:
A) Manage to find an OEM replacement drier tomorrow, even if I have to drive the hour and a half down to Salt Lake to get it but it'd have to be from a dealer since not a single one of the parts stores have any in stock anywhere.
B) spend another $300 and buy a whole new aftermarket condenser with drier and replace a perfectly good condenser simply because I have a very short time limit.

*sigh*

 

[JPaul]

Well, no one has the drier in stock nearby. Closest is AZ. Not paying dealer prices plus overnight at this point so I'll just go without AC for this trip and finish repairing it after I get back. Now to go plug up all the lines to keep dust out, even though I am going to do a flush. Best to keep it as clean as possible for now.

 

[lfootmatt]

Yep, kinda why I didn't balk at my guy's estimate. Just need it to work!
He's installing a full kit, so pretty much an entirely new system.
Hopefully I can get with Reloader and copy his dual factory electric fan setup in the near future. It's needed in Phoenix!

Later,

Matt

 

[Jeepwalker]

So, did you find contaminates in the system? Sounds like there might have been. You probably know the micro-channel condensers have very small passages, and being parallel-flow, are really difficult if not impossible to get contaminates out of. *IF* you had them in your system. If there are a lot of contaminates from a flaking-out compressor, either put on a filter, or replace the condenser and thoroughly have the shop flush out the rest.

I suppose the shop already suggested these things though. Yeah, where you live, AC is almost a must.. Let us know how the project turned out, how it works.

 

[JPaul]

I did not go to a shop.

So the replacement OEM GM drier arrived (part # 25901981) and it too is NOT the correct fit for the factory condenser. I have no idea why you can't seem to get a replacement drier/accumulator from GM for the factory condenser. So apparently I just need to buy an entire new condenser now which is a massive pile of BS. This time though I am not bothering with the factory original replacement and am just going to go with an aftermarket since at least then I can replace the drier later if needed. I'm the angriest about this mainly because I just replaced that condenser only a few years ago or so and have put hardly any time/mileage on it since then.

 

[deserth3]

Not sure what year model h3 you have. But at gmpartscenter.net it states that pn is for
3.7L, 1st design. Hummer H3.
You may need the second design

(25964059)​

Hummer H3. From 9/30/08. Canyon, Colorado. 5.3l. 5.3L, 2nd design. 3.7L, 2nd design. 3.5 & 3.7L. Removes harmful moisture from the A/C refrigerant system

 

[JPaul]

Not sure what year model h3 you have. But at gmpartscenter.net it states that pn is for
3.7L, 1st design. Hummer H3.
You may need the second design

(25964059)​

Hummer H3. From 9/30/08. Canyon, Colorado. 5.3l. 5.3L, 2nd design. 3.7L, 2nd design. 3.5 & 3.7L. Removes harmful moisture from the A/C refrigerant system

I checked several places and only came up with the first part #. Mine is an 08 Alpha. Maybe it comes up under the 09+?

I already have a new Denso condenser on the way from Rock Auto so it won't be worth it to try sending it back now. Thanks for finding that though.

 

[JPaul]

Looked on Rock Auto again, sure enough if you look under the 09 H3 it has both driers listed. Apparently my problem is I replaced the condeser with the 2nd design since that is all that is available from GM now. That's pretty frustrating but what can you do.

 

[lfootmatt]

Got mine back, $1850ish with a $400 detail. AC blows nice and cold, it looks great, and no longer has an odor of mildew from the leaking sunroof. Hate spending the money, but sometimes my time with the family has to take priority.

and yes, he said the compressor was dying and contaminating the system.

later,

Matt

 

[Jeepwalker]

Got mine back, $1850ish with a $400 detail. AC blows nice and cold, it looks great, and no longer has an odor of mildew from the leaking sunroof. Hate spending the money, but sometimes my time with the family has to take priority.

You need one of these. Not cheap but in the end, worth the money. Best to keep water out in the first place:

2006-2010 HUMMER H3 SUN ROOF GLASS WEATHER STRIP SEAL NEW GM # 15242781 | eBay

The engine types may include 3.5L 3460CC 211Cu. l5 GAS DOHC Naturally Aspirated,3.7L 3654CC 223Cu. l5 GAS DOHC Naturally Aspirated,5.3L 5328CC 325Cu. I n. V8 FLEX OHV Naturally Aspirated,5.3L 5328CC 325Cu.

www.ebay.com

 

[JPaul]

It kills me how expensive those are.

 

[lfootmatt]

Damn!!! But it sure makes sense!!!. Good thing I paid $3K now the market when we bought it 5 years ago.

Thanks for the tip!!!

....that's what she said....

Later,

Matt

 

[aspen]

Fun times. AC was starting to barely work during city driving. Today it decided to stop working period. Seems like the charge was low, only getting 10psi on the low side and at first only 50 psi on the high side. Started filling it back up and the high side shot up to 250psi eventually and then stayed there. Low side remained at 10psi. Got up to 300psi on the high side but still 10psi on the low.

Based on what I can find it's most likely the thermal expansion valve is stuck closed. Condenser was replaced a few years ago and was working great after that. Ordered a new valve that will be in tomorrow fortunately. Now I have to get a couple more cans of r134a and rent a vacuum pump. Finally bought a gauge set today to test and monitor the refill. Glad I did or I would have been left guessing. Might have to buy a vacuum pump too one of these days.

Of course I have a camping trip I leave for on Saturday, and I have to drive the H3 down to Salt Lake on Wednesday so that I can drop my daughter off for her mountain biking practice in the morning on the way down. It's friggin hot this week too. 100 degree days. Not that I'll get any pity from the people who live in hell, er, Pheonix.

my stopped working last month they said 1400 to fix compresser shot. AC kit is 300 on rock auto .com did it my self