Hi

I redid the A/C on my 2004 Freestar as the compressor spit out a belt 2 weekends ago. I replaced the compressor/condenser/accumulator/ Orifice/expansion valve and cleaned out the lines. I vacuumed it for about 4 hours and then put in the R134a. I found that I needed to tighten the left condenser line as it was leaking (no vacuum leaks)but overall it was fine and fixed. However I have ice cold front A/C but do not have any A/C for the rear.

I have the line split just before the accumulator and it is cold but as the line travel by the firewall it isn't cold at all. Could my new expansion valve be bad? It is a motorcraft part not the knock off stuff. Could I have an air bubble? Is there another valve somewhere?

I want my kids to have A/C in the back and not get hot and ornery.

Thanks for your help

 

Resonded to you private message. Forgot to add that even thought you have a MOTORCRAFT part, It could be bad. Most evpansion valves fail in the CLOSED position. However, these valves do not fully close to ensure proper compressor cooling. It's possible that some left over debris may have plugged the valve. This is one of the reasons I installed a line filter w/Site glass in my Freestar. Even after replacing the front orifice, accumulator, condensor, rear expansion valve and doing a forward and reverse flush on the front and rear evaporators and all lines, I still had debris that pludded up the line filter. It took 3 live flushes (Fill, run and recovers) to clear all of the remaining debris out of the system.

 

I did this using cans of r134a from the autoparts store. I guess this means I should look for someone with a machine to evac and fill. The cans cost about $10 for 12 oz so it does add up quickly now.

I flushed lines but I guess I might have missed something. All the shrapnel found in the rear was very small size and I considered reusing the old expansion valve since it looked pretty good. I will open the system up next week and let you know what I find.

 

You can use cans with no problems. Just need to mack sure you pull a good vacuum and it holds. Then re-charge. You're charge should be 53 oz. If using cans, I would use 5 12oz'ers. The little extra will make up for line loss while installing.

Also, when you open the system back up, I would also double check the front orifice to ensure that it's still clean.

Are you anywhere near Yorkshire, NY?

 

I was fooled by having good A/C in the rear for a half hour and thought my system was good. However it couldn't keep it cool.
so..........
I took the A/C down and found contaminant in the expansion valve on the small high pressure line side. Also went into the orifice on the advice on common sense and found contaminant there. However the pipe that it sits in was broken in the process. Any quick ways to get this? I want this car for vacation next week.

I put a filter before the compressor so hopefully the compressor is not harmed by this.

Not sure where the contaminant was hiding after system flush with new condenser.

 

That's why I installed a line filter with sight glass on the HIGH pressure side. The crud sets in the nooks and crannies of the system. Most likely in the rear evaproator and the mufflers (Non-Flushable) on the LOW and HIGH side lines. I had to evacuate and recharge my system 3 times to get a clean system. Could see the filter start to plug up with debris in a couple of minutes of running. I run a cleanable line filter. I'll get a couple of pics of my filter and load them up.

The only thing I can think of for a replacement orifice line is to see if you can fine one at a recycle yard. Should be the same line for a single or dual A/C Freestar.

 

All right

This is getting painfull. I have taken the system down 4 times. once due to a junk lifetime warranty condenser.

I still do not have the rear evaporator working. It worked well on one of the times I recharged the system to the point it made condensation on the outside of the sheet metal. This last time I recharged even though I spend lots of time to ensure the line was clear it didn't work at all. Is the expansion valve bad? This is the only thing I am coming to because when I pulled it apart the last time there was hardly any contaminent - it was such a small piece of metal it was hard to imagine it causing any blockage.

I am going to return the expansion valve try a new one hoping to get rear A/C

 

Its seems that there might have been a bleeding issue that caused the issues in the rear AC
Running still at this point. Although I think I should have added more R134 but was a little light since I kept redoing the job.

 

What in-line filter are you guys running?

 

I bought mine for this site: A/C IN LINE FILTER and installed it after my compressor failure. Works slick as snot. Here are 3 pictures of mine in action. Picture #1 is the compressor off, picture #2 is when the compressor first fires up (Gas starting to turn to liquid) and picture #3 is the system running and the hot liquid coming from the condenser.