I was sitting in the parking lot of Carl's waiting for a buddy to get his order straight; had my truck idling and the AC running. Out of nowhere there was a huge explosion and white smoke came up from the hood. This was loud as hell; I thought my engine blew but it was still running. I shut the truck down and let it cool for a few minutes. When I opened the hood I noticed one of the rubber lines coming from my condenser had burst and there was green refrigerant stuff everywhere. Anyone heard of these lines just bursting out of nowhere? The AC system seemed to be running fine up until that point. Earlier in the day I was kidding that I bet most people who encountered this beat up truck would not suspect that it had a nice running AC system, it was a hot day.

I have a 94 Toyota Pickup, 2WD, 22RE. It has been beat to ˟˟˟˟ but won't quit running. Recently encountered some black ice and did a number on the body. No mechanical damage though.

 

That sucks big time, i hope it doesn't happen to me, but then again, i think on how old the a/c system is.

 

Yeah. I guess the hoses are probably original to the vehicle which at this point is 20 years old. I'm no A/C expert but I'm pretty sure it is the high pressure hose that blew. Not sure how much PSI those hoses see and I would hope that they have some sort of design factor. In any case, my best guess at this point is that the hose must have succumb to wear and tear.

My guess is the hose is probably pretty expensive, hopefully under 100 bucks. That's assuming I can get it off of the condenser. The thing that I think would kill me is the recharge of the system. I've heard those are like 200 bucks. I need a pro to do it right though. Get all the old ˟˟˟˟ out. Get all the moisture out.

 

I would put on a new hose, new drier, and new filter/screen (called an orifice tube, which is inline), convert to 134A (if not done already) and call it good. You can get the charge/conversion kits from any parts store.

 

The drier replacement must be due to the fact that I'm losing all my fluid out of the system? Mine is only 2 years old but I heard you need to change them if you are going to completely drain your refrigerant. Isn't there some oil mixed with the refrigerant? Is this something that comes standard in the stuff or do I need to add it separately?

 

Do a Bing/Google search and it will explain it better than I can. The drier gets replaced anytime the system is open/exposed. The orifice tube/screen gets replaced because its cheap insurance, plus it can give you insight into any other problems, like a compressor coming apart causing blockage which causes high pressure which causes hoses to blow...

And the oil gets replaced with an oil that is made for the R12 system to R134A refrigerant conversion. The oil is made to lubricate all the old R12 hoses and seals, but still carry the R134A through the system. Either a PAG (polyalkyllene glycol) oil or some folks use Ester oil. R12 uses mineral oil, and R134A isn't compatible with mineral oil.