1998 Pontiac Trans Am A/C not cooling very well

RAYSTELLA

MEMBER
1998 PONTIAC TRANS AM
V8
2WD
AUTOMATIC
178,000 MILES

I replaced my compressor, dryer, evaporator, and high side line. These were all after market parts of course. I did the labor myself which was pretty easy on this particular car. I took care to rub all seals with tag oil before connecting them and I had no issues with anything fitting into it's proper location. I had the system professionally vacummed and recharged. The A/C system worked great for about a month. The temperature was around 50-55 degrees coming out of the vents.

One month later it takes a long time to get cool and it's leaking water into the passenger side foot area. The dryer use to sweat and drip water now it only gets cool not cold. I can see water dripping off the hose connection under the hood leading to the evaporator chamber under the dashboard. Other than that the compressor engages and seems to be working and the cooling fans are engaging and seem to be blowing okay. The temperature coming out of the vent only gets to about 60-65 degrees now. If I take a long drive the system seems to perform a little better but not for a very long time. I have not had the system retested to see if the refridgerant level is still the same and there are no leaks.

I'm stumped? Are one of my replacement components bad or not working up to OEM specification?

3 Replies

FACTORYJACK

MECHANIC
4,159 POSTS

Was the compressor that was replaced noisy, or suffered a catastrophic failure. In this case was the expansion device(orifice tube) checked/changed. Did it have metal present associated with compressor failure? If so, it may have more metal that found its way to it, and needs to be checked again. It sounds though, as if you are low on charge, you would only be able to tell this by either pressures(not real precise), or recovery that would weigh the amount of refrigerant removed. Looking at running pressures first, might also give you an indication if a component has failed.

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Thursday, May 20th, 2010 AT 11:47 PM

RAYSTELLA

MEMBER
5 POSTS

Well I took it to my servicing center and they diagnosied the problem to be a leaking seal at the connection of the evaporator. On this particular vehicle it is a dual seal which is on the high and low side connectors for the evaporator. System is working pretty good again.

However, there is still a little water leaking into the passenger section. So I'm going to assume they did not check my drain so I'll have to do that myself since I took off on a week long trip to sunny Miami from sunny Tampa.

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Monday, May 24th, 2010 AT 7:26 AM

FACTORYJACK