finding an ac leak on a 355?

charged my ac to 35 pounds yesterday, and it blew cold!
got in the car today.. nadda!

any hints on tracing the leak?

 

There are a few ways to do it mate.

Can you borrow an a/c gas 'sniffer'?? That way, you can do the sniffer test.

Another way is to add some special dye into the a/c system and check with a special light and glasses.

Or........charge the system with nitrogen and listen for a leak that way.

In all honesty, it may be best to take to an a/c specialist as they should have ALL those tools/dyes/nitrogen to do the job. I doubt too many people have the sniffer tester and dye/vaccum pump at home to do the job. Let alone a bottle of nitrogen laying around.

 

bought the dye and the blacklight.. found nothing. Sealed the system. Charged it. Crossing fingers, or will take it in on Monday. Obviously its got a leak. This should be something I can do myself, but.. I do not have the time!

 

But did you get the glasses in the kit?? You need the glasses to see the dye leaking out mate.

 

they came with the kit. you can see the dye without the glasses as well. the dye is very luminous. thanks!

 

Ah, ok.

Well go back and re-inspect mate. There will be a leak there somewhere, find it.

It could be coming from the evaporator, which is probably why you cannot see the leak?? The evaporator is in the trunk compartment/front of the cab. The easiest way to look for that leak is actually using the sniffer tester and stuffing it up the a/c water drain tube.

Not too sure if you can get the light anywhere near the evaporator.

It may be best left to the pro's me thinks. They should have a sniffer tester to get in there to check it.

 

He did a nitrogen charge. It held for 45 min. Pulled down the vaccum. Recharged to 1.75 lbs. And she's blowin cold!

An additional problem is/was definitely the recirculation flap actuator is/was broken, so I was cooling new air all the time. This weekend, the ambient air was 90+, so thats the story.. for the next guy!

Thanks to Scuderia Rampante! I will be taking my car to the chapter picnic this weekend!

Best,

Mr.F40

 

Excellent to hear.

But what did he do to fix the leak?

 

There probably was no leak. That is supported by the leakdown test.

The system failure (and misdiagnosis from YOURS TRULY) was the result of the broken recirculator flap. The system was trying to cool ambient air. On the day after the charge, the ambient air was +90F. I o√ercharged the system to >3lbs of freon (spec is ~1.75.)

The fix will ultimately be a new actuator arm from Daniel at Ricambi (maybe $70.)

Long story short.. the reason I couldnt find the leak was: there wasnt one, and I would have been much better off taking my car in to Dave the expert sooner.

I just wanted to fix the problem Sunday, because after months and months, its finally FERRARI weather here.

The car is fixed and I will be taking her to the chapter picnic on Sunday.

 

Thanks mate, I understand now.

 

Did you install a new actuator for the recirculation flap? Did it solve the problem? I have the same situation. Thought the A/C was weak but a pressure check showed good. The recirculation flap is always open.

There is NO voltage going to the actuator motor on mine when I press the recirculation button so it seems the motor is not the problem. Flap moves freely with the motor removed and the motor connection pin/boss is not broken. I've verified the recirculation switch is good.

All other heating and cooling functions work so it's not a blown fuse (unless there is some separate fuse for the recirculation flap motor... which I would doubt).

Any idea where the climate control ECU is located? The only thing I can think of is part of the ECU is bad or some wiring/connector between the ECU and the switch or between the ECU and the motor.

 

The actuator finger was busted, so the flap was always open. Its hard to cool 100+ degree air!!!