1997 GMC Sonoma finding a leak

JOEDB

MEMBER
1997 GMC SONOMA
4 CYL
2WD
MANUAL
159,000 MILES

My A/C system will not hold a charge for more than a week. I have a guy who said he can find and fix the leak but wont show up to do the work. He said he had to take the dash out and find the leak. My question is what is in the dash that could be leaking? Also I'm pretty mechanically inclined and think I could fix it myself. Do I need the UV dye and a light to find the leak. Or can I use the refridgerant with red dye to find a leak big enough to need charging in a week or two? Any info will be of help. The engines a 2.2 l 4 cyl and the book I have is very vague on A/C section(not much more than hoe to add coolant.

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 AT 6:47 PM

1 Reply

HMAC300

MECHANIC
48,601 POSTS

Dyes are not the thing to do to find leaks in a/c systems. If you aren't trained in a/c repair take ti to someone who is. Dye tends to clog things inside the system even though tthey say they don't. And they only find large leaks not small ones. Most leak checks are done with an electronic tester. You dash shouldn't need to be torn apart to find a leak. Only if the evaporator is bad. There are o-rings that will leak and hoses as weal as a seal on the a/c compressor that will leak first. If the guy won't come over then take it to apro.

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Saturday, July 24th, 2010 AT 9:42 AM