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A/C Fix, 98 XJ Sport

turpehar

NAXJA Forum User
Location
Farmer City, IL
OK, so it turned hot and my recently purchased XJ's A/C didn't work when I turned it on. The girls in my carpool were not happy.

After doing some digging in this forum and some others, it became apperant that low/no refridgerant was the most common cause. I had already dianosed that power to all the components wer up to par. So I went to O'Riely Auto Parts and bought a decent gauge/fill kit and three cans of R134a with sealing additive.

I followed the directions. You can't screw this up because the fittings in this kit made it impossible to connect to the wrong side. I checked the low side and pressure was below 10psi, more like 5psi. I added one can of refridgerant and then it tested at 20psi. Added another can then tested at 35psi. The thrid can brought the pressure to the recommended 45psi and the high side tested at 225 which was the desired amount.

We can hang meat in there now. The jury is still out on a major leak, but I bet not.
Thanks for the help to those with previous problems that provided info.
 
Did you add oil?

Did you put anything in to help the "O" rings seal?

I did both about 3 years ago, still running cool. That A/C compressor on the 98's is beefy.
 
1. XJ's are known for evaporator leaks
2. If it needs to be charged there is a leak.
3. Hopefully your leak is small and your charge will last longer than a week or two.


You can easily check for major leaks by using that UV dye stuff, but if you dont want to put that in your system just get a spray bottle and mix up some soapy water and spray it on every connection and see if any bubbles are created. This is obviously just to find major leaks but it might help if your charge does'nt hold. If you dont find any leaks it is most likely your evaporator (which is under the dash), and if you want to confirm that it is before you tackle the job charge your system with dye and r134 run the AC until it drips condensation under the car and see if you can find any dye in the water. Sometimes the condesation will rinse away the dye from the leak.

I just replaced my evaporator and orifice tube and accumulator as well as every seal in the system and its really not that complicated. If your ac goes hot again do some searches there is more than enough information on this board to fix the problem the correct way.
 
R-134a will slowly leak out even with out a real leak. It is notorious for slow off season leaks, if the AC is not run for a few minutes about once every 4 to 8 weeks in the off (cold) season. Running the compressor redistrubutes the oil and o'ring seal conditioner in the oil that helps the o'rings seal the system. If it is not run for 6 to 8 months the orings shrink a little and slowly leak. It can leak an entire 12 oz easily in 8 to 9 months if it is not run a little here and there.
 
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