OK so I own this 2007 Chevy Aveo and its at approximately 115000 miles and now when I turn the ac on high it blow cool but not cold. It does not blow warm or hot but cooler then the air around me. SO my question /s does this mean I have a leak or does the freon substitute lose its strength after a while? What should I do next? I am from Maine I do not know much about this system. Thanks Mark
Refrigerant never looses it's strength or depletes from a system. But I guess you could say that looses it's strength its contaminated by non condensables such as air. You probably have a slow leak. The most common area to leak would be from the service ports. The caps on them don't really do crap to keep the refrigerant in. They are more to keep the dirt out of the valve cores. The molecules in R134a are smaller than the old R12. That's why it's so much more prone to leak out.
Guessing what the problem "might be" won't fix the problem. You will need to put gauges on and see what's going on.
Yes, freon can leak over time... both normally, or deplete due to a physical leak such as a valve or a seal... or other mechanical failures including compressor and cores.
Side note: systems that are repeatedly recharged can also develop contamination from air in the systems, which can also give false gauge readings, but still result in poor performance.
Too little, or too much freon charge will result in less than optimum cooling as well.
Proper A/C performance also assumes proper air-flow over condenser coil.. and well as proper freon flow through orifice tubes.. etc.
So basically I need to take it to a shop? I do not have any tools to work on the AC system. I do have a retired friend that did HVAC for years and I will see what he says (he still has all the equipment) Thanks for all the great answers, Mark
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