Undercharged A/C Confirmed
Undercharged A/C Confirmed
Last summer I remember my A/C working but the time it took to cool down the cab initially was a little disappointing, even after letting the truck run for 10 minutes before I'd get in it always felt just slightly cool when you'd expect it to be cold, given enough time it would eventually get cold, but that's not normal in my book. At first I thought it was just me because the Mustang I drove prior to my truck had the best A/C of any vehicle I've ever driven by far, but after reading so many complaints about our A/C systems on here I decided to look into mine a little more closely.
Yesterday I evacuated my system and only recovered 20oz of refrigerant (system capacity is 24oz), I will note that I had a surprising amount of oil drain when I recovered my system, I rarely see a full once of oil get drawn out during a system recovery.
After I recharged my system with a full 24oz charge my A/C cycle times didn't change by any significant amount, it stills only engages the A/C clutch for 6-7 seconds at a time. but my low side A/C pressure is roughly 25psi, compared to my initial reading of 15psi, and high side pressure jumped from 100psi up to roughly 160psi.
The ambient air temp was only 70*F yesterday so it's too soon to really judge my A/C systems performance, but I left my truck running outside with the heat turned all the way up for about 10 minutes and my ambient cab temperature measured out of the air stream between the front seats rose to 105*F, I turned my A/C to the max setting with recirc and after 3 minutes I had a ambient cab temperature of 65*F measured in the same location.
I'll still have to wait until summer to see if I'll get any major improvement in system performance on those 100*F days, but my system was 4OZ UNDERCHARGED, and my truck was built in May of 2014, so if your A/C isn't up to your standards check your charge level, there's a very good chance that yours could have been undercharged from the factory too.
Yesterday I evacuated my system and only recovered 20oz of refrigerant (system capacity is 24oz), I will note that I had a surprising amount of oil drain when I recovered my system, I rarely see a full once of oil get drawn out during a system recovery.
After I recharged my system with a full 24oz charge my A/C cycle times didn't change by any significant amount, it stills only engages the A/C clutch for 6-7 seconds at a time. but my low side A/C pressure is roughly 25psi, compared to my initial reading of 15psi, and high side pressure jumped from 100psi up to roughly 160psi.
The ambient air temp was only 70*F yesterday so it's too soon to really judge my A/C systems performance, but I left my truck running outside with the heat turned all the way up for about 10 minutes and my ambient cab temperature measured out of the air stream between the front seats rose to 105*F, I turned my A/C to the max setting with recirc and after 3 minutes I had a ambient cab temperature of 65*F measured in the same location.
I'll still have to wait until summer to see if I'll get any major improvement in system performance on those 100*F days, but my system was 4OZ UNDERCHARGED, and my truck was built in May of 2014, so if your A/C isn't up to your standards check your charge level, there's a very good chance that yours could have been undercharged from the factory too.
Senior Member
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 9,300
Likes: 1,524
From: Manassas Va
Last summer I remember my A/C working but the time it took to cool down the cab initially was a little disappointing, even after letting the truck run for 10 minutes before I'd get in it always felt just slightly cool when you'd expect it to be cold, given enough time it would eventually get cold, but that's not normal in my book. At first I thought it was just me because the Mustang I drove prior to my truck had the best A/C of any vehicle I've ever driven by far, but after reading so many complaints about our A/C systems on here I decided to look into mine a little more closely. Yesterday I evacuated my system and only recovered 20oz of refrigerant (system capacity is 24oz), I will note that I had a surprising amount of oil drain when I recovered my system, I rarely see a full once of oil get drawn out during a system recovery. After I recharged my system with a full 24oz charge my A/C cycle times didn't change by any significant amount, it stills only engages the A/C clutch for 6-7 seconds at a time. but my low side A/C pressure is roughly 25psi, compared to my initial reading of 15psi, and high side pressure jumped from 100psi up to roughly 160psi. The ambient air temp was only 70*F yesterday so it's too soon to really judge my A/C systems performance, but I left my truck running outside with the heat turned all the way up for about 10 minutes and my ambient cab temperature measured out of the air stream between the front seats rose to 105*F, I turned my A/C to the max setting with recirc and after 3 minutes I had a ambient cab temperature of 65*F measured in the same location. I'll still have to wait until summer to see if I'll get any major improvement in system performance on those 100*F days, but my system was 4OZ UNDERCHARGED, and my truck was built in May of 2014, so if your A/C isn't up to your standards check your charge level, there's a very good chance that yours could have been undercharged from the factory too.
The only way to check how much refrigerant you have in your system is to have the system evacuated and see how much comes out, you can check system pressures to get an idea of whether or not your system is overcharged or undercharged, but you won't know by how much until you evacuate the system.