My air conditioning nightmare.2000 Grand caravan

dla4567 said
I've been doing a/c repair for over 20 years now and I can tell you that 80% of the repairmen shouldn't be allowed to work an a/c. An overcharge is very common and your right, it is impossible to prove fault. Finding leaks takes time and good tools. Most guys don't have the patiance, and will not spend the money for the right tools. Putting dye in a system to find leaks is not a good idea,and can cause more problems.Before an a/c system is recharged it should be evacuated to at least 500 microns (I prefer 400), and able to hold that for at least 10-15 minutes,that will show system is tight and leak free. Refrigerant should be weighed in as per manufactures specs then checked by pressures and tempatures. Good luck finding a good repairman they are few and far between.If you were anywhere near western Pa I'd be glad to help, but since you use celsius I'm guessing your not from around here.

All true. Around here, though, shop owners want to use dye just to push things through. Especially when the dye is also billed as a "stop leak." (Really, if it has some kind of "gel" or whatever in it to stop a leak what's it doing to the orifice tube?) But before the dye, how did they do things? They pulled a vacuum and see if it held.I worked with a guy who went out for company training on A/C for a week and came back with no knowledge on how to read the gauges on the machine, but with knowledge on how to sell more parts. Had to retrain 'em on the machine and show 'em how to read the gauges and a thermometer. (He was told to pull a system to 28" of vacuum and pump it full, no reason to see if it held, that's what the dye is for.) Got to the point that the boss quit handing him the A/C work because he got tired of the comebacks, simply because of the fact the company taught him how to cut corners, not do it right. The kid could sell the how out of parts and make boat loads of money, but then lose it all the next week because he misdiagnosed the intial problem or refused to check his work once he installed new parts into the system. Is it the lack of proper experience in the field, the lack of proper training, or a little of both?