DOOH! Wiping Down Motor Results In Huge Cloud of Smoke!

[Butler]

Hi R3v,

I washed my car today, nothing out of the usual. After I dried it I popped the hood to wipe off dust that tends to collect on the coolant hoses and such. I was wiping, and rather gently at that, from the passenger side of the car behind the headlight or in front the windshield wiper tank when BAM! All of a sudden white smoke was hissing out of the engine bay like crazy!

After some further investigation, I must have bumped into part of AC because I think it was refrigerant that was spraying out!
There was some red residue left behind when it was all out of pressure. I'm not really sure what I did, nothing was loose and nothing seemed "wrong", a side from the hissing cloud of smoke that engulfed my entire driveway. :crazy:

The hole it was came out of was on top of the ... AC condenser? its small black plastic hexagon shaped piece now with a tiny hole in the center.



What now?

[Bishop]

Hope the EPA don't come a knockin, and hope you didn't inhale much of that crap? lol

[dashboardmonkey]

you know you could replace the condensor

[payney8]

thats defintely an ac joiner were you can check your pressure and gas the system. Sounds like youve broken it or the lines have dried out and gotten hard and you've cracked one. hope you didnt breath to much in

[Eric Giles]

Sounds like the part that start leaking was actually the receiver/dryer-the condenser is located right behind the front grill. You will need to order a new receiver/dryer (around $20 or so online), remove the old one, remove the two switches that are screwed into old unit and put them into the new one, and install the new one making sure to use new o-rings at the hose connections.

Do you know if your A/C system was still using R12, or had it been converted to R134a? I am going to assume it was still using R12, so find a shop in your area that still has R12. Once you have reinstalled the new receiver/dryer, take it to them so they can pull a vacuum on the system and remove the moisture-then they will recharge it with R12. Alternatively, you can have them replace the receiver/dryer for you, but you will save some money doing it yourself-plus it is easy.

[Butler]

Thanks for the advice.


Yeah It was R12 and no I didn't breath it in. haha.

[scabzzzz]

The red shit was probably A/C system dye or stop leak or some shit from over the years.


R12 totally gets you high :) I huff it all the time!

[Sailor37]

Freon smoke...don't breathe this!

[ethree]

You're in central oregon, pull the rest of your a/c crap and recycle it.

[Butler]

You're in central oregon, pull the rest of your a/c crap and recycle it.

lol wut? Why would I do that?

[ethree]

Because you don't need a/c, it's heavy and now you're going to have to overhaul the system for r134(?) which is costly.

[5KWattson]

A/C FTW it really only weights about 40-50 lbs and unless you drive a strickly track car that weight is not going to affect your up enough to notice....the extra drag on the motor from the belt doesn't matter since at wot the A/C compressor is kicked off in most applications

[ethree]

You need a/c in fresno it's over 100*F six months out of the year. IIRC the rule of thumb is 100lbs gets you a tenth in the 1/4 and is free.

[5KWattson]

Lol yeah it is hot maybe not 6 months out of the year but we do spike around 115 in aug

[briansjacobs]

Lol yeah it is hot maybe not 6 months out of the year but we do spike around 115 in aug

fuck me that is hot. and that is coming from Florida!