Car AC Suddenly Quits

 On the way to the clinic to pick up the cats, I realized the car AC had quit working.  It worked the day before.  I am pretty sure it did anyhow.   The fan merely blew out warm air as I drove along, sun blazing down, car very hot, on the freeway.   

Once at the clinic, to pick up the cats, I sat in the car scrolling on my phone, trying to see, since its so small, the print, what could be wrong by quickly scanning various articles.

I got home, and two of the five cats were picked up immediately by their caretakers.   Kirby's person came, brought me gifts of cat food, eggs from their chickens, all sorts of stuff that made me happy.  She often brings me food, that I'd never be able to afford on my own.  I was thrilled to get that sort of help.  Next few days, I'll be eating like a, well I don't know what, but way better than usual.

Anyhow, after that I called my Lebanon friend, the one who had been going to catsit while I was off to Idaho, and she offered to take me on to Sweet Home.  I drove to Lebanon first and got so hot in the car.  It was like 90 here yesterday.   I was glad to park at her place, load the cats into her truck and off we went with working AC to Sweet Home, to return the two girls from that colony.  They recuperate them there and I'll get my traps later.

After I got home, I did all sorts of searches on car AC systems, as I wanted to understand all that could be wrong.  I had this horrible feeling it was going to be the most expensive component--the compressor.  If the compressor fails and locks, the belt breaks and the car shuts off, wherever you are, out there.   And compressor replacement is horrendously expensive.  I'm hoping the car needs a gas recharge.  It's a closed system, like a frig or heat heat pump, but the car is old, and maybe there's a leak.  

I watched youtube video after youtube video, with my favorite youtube mechanic railing against use of the store bought DIY recharger units, claiming there's no way to know, when you use those, how much you put into the system or even how much is in the system starting out and he said, you put too much in the low side port, the high side, if overpressurized, can make things explode.  Yikes, I thought.  He also hates the recharge DIY cans because they can introduce air and moisture into your AC gas lines.

Yikes again.

By far, its the compressor I worry about failing the most, due to its expense to replace.  The pulley is whirling however, as far as I can see.  It's very hard to see that lower pulley from the top looking down in, however.  I think its spinning.

Today I'm taking the car to Valvoline in town here.  They do AC pressure/leak checks and recharge the gas, if they think that's the problem.  If not, they tell you to find a mechanic.  I already tried to find a mechanic.  My latest mechanic shop in town here said they don't work on AC and referred me to another.  There was no answer there, at the place they referred me to, so I left a message.   First I'll try the recharge route.  I was going to change the car cabin filter before the Idaho trip but Walmart didn't have the right one, so I didn't.  It hasn't been changed in a few years but I doubt that could cause the complete failure.   

There are a few components to the system:  the condensor and evaporator of course, with lines between the components, the compressor that runs it, a small drying cannister, some electronic expansion valve and of course the gas itself.  Every one of those parts is costly to replace, the compressor replacement averaging over $1000, but even to replace the lines is costly.  They're not cheap either.

Let's hope its the simplest cheapest problem, gas leak and a recharge to fix it.  This costs at Valvoline about $160.