Well, was 92° Saturday here in my neck of the woods in Western NY. Was tooling down the highway with a cool comfy breeze on my face when I noticed it getting warmer and warmer. Then it was just plain HOT. Checked and sure enough, no A/C compressor engagement. Got home and slapped the gauges on the A/C and sure enough, no pressure. System was completely empty. Gotta be a leak somewhere, so I put the nitrogen to it and sure enough, hear the hissing just below the accumulator area. Yep, leak detect everywhere. Tore the system apart and what do I find? A wear hole in the liquid line. Apparently the $29,000 sticker price of the van didn't include the missing $.03 hold down bolt for the bracket. Heck, I would have paid $.15 for the bolt. So, I cut the bad spot out, went to the hardware store and got a 1/2" compression line coupler to reconnect the line. Went ahead and installed a new front orifice (good thing as it had some crud build up on it) and buttoned everything back up. Pulled my 2 hour vacuum and charged the system back up. All is well at this time. Nice and cold...

I would say to all Freestar/Monterey owners to look at this bracket and ensure Ford bolted it down.

 

Even a guy who knows what's he's doing. This van stuck the $ money out of you. Every time you redo/flush, that's $100 already. 2 canister is it?
I have mine for sale as I'm driving it.

 

Glad it was an easier fix. Been hot here too, A/C=must!
Shoveled 8 yards of wood chips today in 100+ degree heat... What the hell was I thinking 😎

 

"What the hell was I thinking "...

Probably what I was thinking yesterday when I replaced the belt tensioner pulley on the Freestar to get rid of my squeak...

"Damn it's hot out"...

 

What $ is considered cheap?

Yea is hot every where. Last night was first night windows open so central air could take a break.

 

Word there was 'easier', not always equates to cheap/er ... Could'a been the evap core!

 

Cheap for me since I do my own work. $5 for a 1/2" compresson connector and 1 hour of my time to disassemble and reasssemble everything. Then I over kill on my system vacuuming. I pull vacuum for 2 hours after reaching 29.9 inHg of mercury. The I shut everything down and let the system set for 1 hour to ensure it holds a vacuum. After that, charge the system with a full charge of refrigerant. So all in all I have about 1.5 hours of actual work and do other stuff while vacuuming and setting the system set.

 

What I mean was to recharge refrigerant that's also $$.

 

Still have refrigerant in my 30lb tank that's been paid for years ago, so no real expense there either. Even if I had to buy refrigerant, WALMART has plain cans (no sealer or oil added) for $4.88 each, so a fill with them would have been about $25 (5 12oz'rs).

 

Cool.
If I still have the van next spring/summer, I will tackle fixing the rear air.
how much you think it would cost me should I stumble across issues with parts.
until then, I will wait for your help