Can I recharge my own A/C in California?

[King$nake]

My A/C is just blowing air now, it's not cold anymore. My truck has around 130,000 miles on it, so I'm assuming I just need to recharge it.

The cheapest quote I have found for a shop around here is around $90, but I was in the auto parts store the other day and saw cans of refrigerant. Im confused because I always thought that a mechanic had to this for you, but if I can do it myself and save money, Id obviously rather do that.

My truck is a 1998 Explorer, 5.0, RWD eddie bauer.

Any input or help would be appreciated!

Thanks,
Joe

 

[Maniak]

They can't sell you r-12. r-134 you can buy yourself. You having a 1998 means its r-134.. BUT, just throwing teh r-134 at it is sort of why they don't want people doing it themselves. If you have a leak your supposed to fix that first but from what I've seen of shops they find leaks by charging the system then looking for it, then they drain what they put in to fix it and then refill it.

There is good info in the a/c section here about charging your own system. Its actually not hard to do if you have the equipment, but the equipment will cost more than the $90 but then you can do it yourself from now on. BTW.. that $90 to charge is most likely for them to just throw in the r-134. If it leaks out in a week you would pay again to have it refilled.

~Mark

 

[Electrohacker]

you can try it... but how did the charge leak out? did you run your compressor without the charge in the system for too long? that can lead to it ceasing