Supercharged 4Runner

Aloha All,

I am a very HEAVY, HEAVY, ABSOLUTELY HEAVY A/C USER be it day, night, rain, snow since I drove it off the lot back in Feb of 1996! I have taken every step at servicing 3K miles of proper maintance for my 96 4Runner which came stock with R134 A/C that just today decides to blow stale non chilled air!.

I was upset being the Toyota dealer could not take me in today or till next week October 8, 2003 and decided to go a local Service Station who specalizes in A/C Recharge's.

I was told by the Service Tech being my truck had an R134 A/C. My A/C should not have ran out of "COLD Air" regardless of USEAGE! Which the service tech could only validate with a dye check and thought I was dumb being told over and over the ONLY TIME an R134 A/C Car or Truck ran out of COLD AIR was DUE TO A SEVERE LEAK! I was disturbed by this statement since I know i'm not going Am I WRONG in thinking?

Could I have possibly just ran the system dry from such HEAVY USEAGE along with being 7 years old since I have come to notice the past few weeks or so the air has gone from cold to just stale sad air!

I appreciate your replys.

PhxTRDRunner

The service man is correct. You can use it all you want, but it only stops working when you lose pressure in the system or all the freon (sp?) all together. You probably have a bad a/c clutch, those usually go first.

Supercharged 4Runner

:pat: Mahalo's for the info!

I plan to verify and ask tomorrow when I just pop into the dealer and make sure not to get taken for a ride of a costly kind that is.

I appreciate your help!

L33T35T 4Runner

thats quite a name you got there in your signature

ByThaBay

i wish i could drive my 3vze to hawaii

:beach:

Supercharged 4Runner

uggghhhh!

Aloha! So I got the 4Runner back from the Shell Service Station and was told the A/C was recharged with 1.5lbs of R134A, which was not bad for $98.41 vs the dealers $200+

I know I said I would go to the Toyota Dealer, which was a fat chance being they could not see me till next week and I could not wait any longer being we have had some sticky, humid 99 and a record setting 107 yucky temps…

Well just got home from doing 3 hours of errands and low and behold the damn A/C is back to it's tricks of stale air as I was driving here and there with traffic wondering if the slight temperature variance was just “me”.

As soon as I reached my home I called the Shell Service Station and was told they ran a complete test on the system and came back with no leaks and was also told no mechanical parts needed replacement!

I am Now even more frustrated than before. I did tell the service person that Iv'e come to find as an example when I started the engine than seconds later turned on the A/C it would opperate fine and even made it's every 30 second ticking sound from behind the passenger side glove box like today except for after driving here and there and just about everywhere when sitting at a traffic light awaiting a green light at idle there was no more damn ticking!!!!!!!

If I am sitting in a parking lot or at home in the driveway and have the windows down and turn the A/C on I will here a tick like sound and notice the engine idle a bit higher and than it drops down after a tick sound come from the A/C Unit than again and so forth.

While I just decided to see what happens after having been home with the car being off for the past 10 minutes with the windows and hood open for my evaluation. I started the truck than moments later turned the A/C on and heard the usual tick and confirmed by looking in the engine and notice the compressor was spinning a sign the A/C was just turned on and it stayed that way for a good 2 minutes than I came in and tried calling the Shell Service Station back and was told the service tech was on a road call which I decided I would come back here seeking your really, greatly appreciated reply's.....