Year: 1995
Make: Subaru
Model: Legacy
Engine Size: 2.2
Refrigerant Type: R134
Country of Origin: United States
The A/C has a slow leak that was traced to the schrader valves not sealing properly. I borrowed a sniffer leak detector and with both caps off the detector shows leakage on both valves. I tried to tighten both valves but they still leak. Where can I get the proper size valves without buying a whole set of assorted valves? Tim do you have these valves in stock?
A lot of valves do leak. The thing many don't realize is that the cap that screws over them is the real seal. Purchase new caps and then try your sniffer.
That is how I test my sniffer- take the caps off and insert sniffer- it goes off on any car with refrigerant in it!
Get new caps- then do as suggested- leak test with caps on-
I once spent 2 hours looking for a known leak- was ready to give up- when I discovered that the low side cap had a pinhole in the top- yet I was doing all my leak testing with the service hoses and valves attached to the system ports-- If I would have leak tested prior to removing caps, I would have had the leak found in 2 minutes, not 2 hours... live and learn!!
But I always hate to leak test, not knowing if there is even any refrigerant in the system-- so off come the caps- on go the gages-- a bad move in this scenario!! This is why the dye is invaluable--a quick flash of the black light with the caps on would have been the best thing to do....
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The number one A/C diagnostic tool there is- is to know how much refrigerant is in the system- this can only be done by recovering and weighing the refrigerant!!
Just a thought.... 65% of A/C failures in my 3200 car diagnostic database (GM vehicles) are due to loss of refrigerant due to a leak......
Thanks for the quick response ! So it is normal to sniff some freon with the caps removed? I will try some new caps and see if it is the cause of my slow leak.
If you do need valves and have a Carquest store near you they should have a selection of them where you can buy one at a time.
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