My wife has a 1994 Chevy Caprice wagon that she loves. Has the LT1 V8 with 165K miles.
A couple of weeks ago we noticed it wasn’t cooling, and that the compressor wasn’t kicking on. Clearly we figured there must be a leak, so I charged it with two cans of 134A Freon and all was fine. Even used the low and high side gauges to make sure I wasn’t putting too much in. She’s driving it when all the sudden there’s a big puff of white smoke and the AC is no longer blowing cold.
Did I make things worse by charging and not checking for a leak first? Do you think it’s simply a matter of finding the leak and replacing an o ring or do you think we’re in for worse?
Puff of white smoke suggests that one of the nearly 30-year-old hoses or seals sprung a leak. Hook up your gauges and see if there's any pressure in the system.
