308 A/C Issue - unit not working after recharge

Did it work after he rechaged it? Did you convert it or use R12? If it hissed at you and worked for a short time, I would say you have a leak.

 

Ditto, and if you do get it to work, it still won't work!

AC cooling to a comfortable temp in a 308 is a dream; nothing but a dream!

 

I'm pretty sure the 308 would have a "glass eye" you can look into and see the fluid moving. If it looks milky or has lots of air bubbles in it, then you don't have enough coolent. The high and low sides can be identified by the size and even wallmart has a recharge kit that will not let you put 134a into the wrong place. I think it comes with a gage too.

 

The fittings are on top of the compressor, built on the end of the hose connectors opposite the hoses.

Certainly changing the schrader valves is a good place to start. They're just like tire valves, except set deeper inside the fitting & a more oil resistant rubber is used to make them. Any auto parts store will have the valves & long necked removal tool.

However, Hissing is a sign of a fairly large leak. Usually the brass caps for the fill fittings have a rubber seal inside them & slow leaks enough so that they don't hiss.

Even the compressor shaft seal only makes a very faint hiss when it's failed. Usually you can't hear it hiss with the engine running.

My swag is that unless you had a badly damaged schrader valve & the cap was left off, you've got a split hose.

If replacing the valves doesn't fix it, I'd say it's time to take the car to a shop that has a electronic & UV leak detectors, put a partial charge into the system with UV dye, & determine where it's coming from. Your best bet would be an A/C shop that specializes in trucks as they're used to dealing with long hoses & york style compressors.

 

The high pressure side will be labeled "DISCHARGE" on the compressor body, and the low pressure side "SUCTION".

 

sounds familiar....after charging my a/c, the higher system pressure finished the job of making a hole in the a/c hose.

Run your hands along the hoses where they go from the compressor over the fuel tank. Usually the hoses will be hitting some part of the chassis along the way, and due to rubbing will have a nice divot worn into them. When the divot gets deep enough, the hose bursts.

If that's the problem, you get to experience the joy of replacing the hose. You have to remove the passenger side fuel tank to do it.

If you try recharging the system and there is a hole, the freon will immediately shoot out, so it would be easy to find.

btw, ferrari's fix for the hose wear problem was to wrap some foam around the hoses where they hit things. That foam is probably crumbled away by now...replace it with either that dense pipe isulation stuff, or split a piece of scrap hose and wrap it around the a/c hoses as a sacrifice.

 

It's a woman thing.

So does mine, first question is 'does the ferrari's A/C work?, only then comes 'would you like to take your ferrari to...'

BTW, if the hose broke because it wore thru, it can be repaired:

Locate a brass barb fitting that's a tight fit inside the hose. Then put 2 hose clamps side by side over each barb. If it's at a bend, consider a right-angle or 45 degree angle fitting.

However, if you've got to pull a gas tank to do the splice, I'd go ahead & replace the hose.

BTW, while you're at it, there's a fabric braid covered fuel line that runs very close to the A/C hose connectors. There was a recall to re-route the line so that the hose crimps don't cut it. Caused several fires. Found my fuel line had a cut underway when I happened to read about the problem.

 

I just went through the identical problem on my 308.

See http://www.parrotbyte.com/kbc/ferrari/308/ACHoseReplacement.htm for what I had to do.

The high pressure (small hose) leaving the compressor arches above and if not relocated properly, rubs against part of the square tube chassis. This rub area is where there is foam padding that covers both hoses. It's hard to get at without removing either the air cleaner or inner fender shield. My foam was saturated with oil, left as the Freon hissed out.

As far as finding a leak, a large one can be found with pressurized air from a compressor. I got the 330 charged at the same time and it wouldn't pull a vacuum. So the tech had a fitting so I could hook up my air compressor. Once pressurized, we could hear a hissing and tracked it down to a fitting that I hadn't tightened enough.

Regards, Kerry

 

I tried that too...it leaked. However, I didn't use double clamps because the barb wasn't long enough....and probably wasn't a snug enough fit to begin with.

Is there some trick to getting leverage to force the barb in?

 

Smear the barb & inside of hose with A/C oil. Heat the hose up with a hair dryer, & apply force.

Locate a truck or commercial A/C service shop. They should have repair barbs. If they don't have barbs, you could make one up out of a pair of flare type female hose fittings & a male-male flare fitting. Alternatively, get a machine shop to make up a barb out of brass or AL rod.

 

You can find the proper sized in-line splice kit from a local AC shop. I just had a hole in mine (rubbing on gas tank before I fixed it, to late, it finaly burst). It has barbed ends like a fitting that you'd use to attach the hose to the compressor (or another screwed fitting) and came with 2 hose clamps. About 1" was inserted onto each end and ~1/2" was between the hose ends.

I think Verrell is talking about the same thing, but the AC shop I deal with called in and "in line splice". So far so good.

It looks alot like this but with out the valve handle.
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Sounds like we're talking about the same thing. I couldn't remember what they called the inline splice. Guess I ought to dig out my A/C text to see what it calls them.

It is important that the barbed end fit tightly into the hose, otherwise the clamp won't be sufficient.