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2003 Saturn L300 AC will not turn on!

Tiny
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Will give it another go at charging. Will leave if off and see if refrigerant will flow in. Have charged several cars and never had it climb to 100 and stay there with compressor running. Will always come down when engine is revved up. So what if the can never gets cold - and is not empty? Does that mean nothing more will go into the system?

Really do appreciate your assistance! I paid a car electric guy who specialized in AC system, whom I was referred to by the car AC specialists in town, and wasted my $75. He didn't even mention the ambient air sensor! You rock, man!
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Friday, July 26th, 2013 AT 8:44 PM
Tiny
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Are you turning the can while charging or just leaving it straight up?
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Friday, July 26th, 2013 AT 8:55 PM
Tiny
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Straight up. Pressures usually climb higher temporarily when tipped over and the liquid refrigerant flows in.
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Friday, July 26th, 2013 AT 9:06 PM
Tiny
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When using those 12 oz cans to charge you go from 12 o'clock to 3 o'clock every 15 seconds.
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Sunday, July 28th, 2013 AT 4:07 PM
Tiny
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I have done it both as you say and just leaving it straight up. With a normal compressor, the can empties faster doing as you say which is what the instructions say on the can. I was cautioned by an expert that compressors are not meant to handle a liquid slug so I only turn it sideways if I get impatient. Anyway, with this compressor, it doesn't matter what I do with the can, it will not charge the system. Have a compressor on order as well.

So any ideas what to do with the backlighting issue? Can it be repaired? I thought of using a strip LED to illuminate the face of the display.
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Sunday, July 28th, 2013 AT 8:28 PM
Tiny
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I have never seen a bad compressor cause the ac not to allow it not to take a full charge. Also did you pull a vacuum before charging the system?I have never had a back light issue on those. Is a twist in blub in the back of the contolr head?
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Sunday, July 28th, 2013 AT 8:41 PM
Tiny
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I did pull a vacuum. It held overnight. The a/c experts in town here said it was a bad valve in the compressor if the low side pressure will not come down.

Will look at the control head closely tomorrow
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Sunday, July 28th, 2013 AT 10:00 PM
Tiny
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You said your low side went down to 30-35 psi without the flow of charge going in. That's not a bad pressure.I have never seen a bad compressor cause the ac to not take a charge on those cars an have worked on them since they came out in 2000. The pressure will read 100psi because its reading the pressure of the charge in the can when you open the flow from the can. The experts also couldn't figure out the reason the compressor wasn't coming was because you were missing the outside air temp and connector. So don't know how much faith to have in them.I have had trouble charging charging some cars and had to make several attempts to charge them.
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Sunday, July 28th, 2013 AT 10:16 PM
Tiny
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Okay! Figured out why low side pressures so high - the low side pressure gauge is not working! Pressure being trapped within somewhere keeping pressures up. This manifold set is almost 20 years old! So maybe compressor is fine. Will get new gauges tomorrow. HBF has set for $40 with a coupon. Hope its decent. Wow, will be wonderful not to have to change the compressor and do all that work!
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Monday, July 29th, 2013 AT 6:48 PM
Tiny
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I bought the harbor freight ones a few years back and ave used them for a couple of years now. They work OK I would by the 2yr extended warranty they only have a 90 day warranty.
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Monday, July 29th, 2013 AT 7:03 PM
Tiny
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Now, for the conclusion of the A/C repair saga --- installed a ambient temp sensor and problem solved! Compressor works just fine. It was my low pressure gauge that was malfunctioning. So replaced it with the set from HFT and charged up just fine. Low side stays around 28 - 35, High side gets to 300, then condensor fan kicks in and drops back to 250 or so. Inside temp down to 45 degree with ambient temp at 90. Mr saturntech9, my hat is tipped to you! You saved the day and saved me $.

One last question - how do I find a replacement bulb for the LED back light? See pic. Where to find? Can I use something else?

Have a good weekend!
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Friday, August 2nd, 2013 AT 8:07 PM
Tiny
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Your welcome once again those ac experts were wrong about the ac compressor. Glad to hear the ambient temp sensor fixed it like I thought it would. As far as the bulb goes I looked at of a couple of places I find hard to get parts no listing. Is there a number on the bulb or bulb holder?
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Friday, August 2nd, 2013 AT 8:36 PM
Tiny
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I will look closer again later - already put it back together.

Just a word to others that may be following this discussion -- I connected the wires of the ambient temp sensor backwards before I saw the very very tiny "A" and "B" on the connector. There is nothing marked on the sensor end itself. I thot I killed the sensor coz it quit reading the temp. I put the sensor back in the box thinking it was dead. But 12 hrs later I reconnected it just to see if it would work again and sure enuf, it worked fine. So maybe the thermistor just needed time to cool down or reset or something after applying voltage to the wrong end.
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Friday, August 2nd, 2013 AT 8:50 PM
Tiny
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I told you the connector was marked A AND B lol. Lookagain on the bulb its eeasy to pull.
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Friday, August 2nd, 2013 AT 9:00 PM
Tiny
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Only thing I see on bulb is "S" and a very tiny "3". I found some orange LED's that might work on Radioshack. Com for less than a dollar each but the shipping is $8.99! May have to just get those LED's unless you have another idea.
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Sunday, August 4th, 2013 AT 11:05 PM
Tiny
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Try have a T as the base of the bulb size so the bulb number maybe a S3 let me look around.
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Monday, August 5th, 2013 AT 6:13 AM

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