New Caprice - Discussion forums

I'd always noted on my AC that it cooled fine under light, medium, and medium high heat loads, but when it got to those days boring down in the really straight, hot sun (95 degree plus days here in Central Florida) that the AC seemed to struggle just a little bit. I'd complained about this since I've had the car (starting at 11,000 miles at the local dealership) but never had a resolution. Since it's getting pretty bloody hot here in Florida this summer I'd finally had enough, and last week took the car in to my local service shop I use to have the system checked by fresh faces.

So, I ended up paying for a pump down/evac to a vacuum & measuring what was taken out of the system, and then a recharge to the full factory load of Freon as defined in the factory spec. You'll never guess what I found the problem was. Holden had overcharged the system by 3.5 oz of Freon at the factory! I'd had gauges on it once or twice before but never had the system evacuated & recharged. Now the arctic breezes are abundant even in the most sunny part of the day.

So much for Holden quality control. Bah. But the issue is finally fixed!

Eric

Thanks for the tip! If either of mine ever has an issue, that's now the first thing I'll check.

What is the factory spec on the A/C?

18 oz HFC R-134A, 3.3-4.7 oz total PAG oil capacity. Vol 2, Page 10-4 of the 2011 Helm FSM is the source.

Eric

Holden_buff wrote:Thanks for the tip! If either of mine ever has an issue, that's now the first thing I'll check.

And if you have problems now, after things have working fine, it's probably because you are low on freon, not overcharged.

Searching for my solution and think I will try this out! Eric, do you know of a good place that won't bleed me dry? You mentioned Gatto's before?

Yep, Gattos on North Wickham is who I'd recommend, they have a digital machine that when preset will only insert the exact amount of Freon programmed. They can also tell you what you had in the system so you know if you were under or overcharged. Make sure to visit their website and pull down the 10% off coupon, that's good towards parts & labor. As a matter of fact, I just had them do the evac & recharge service on my 2015. Freon level again was off, but not by that much. Same issue as the 2011, AC was a little anemic under heat load. DON'T trust a shop using manual old-school gauges, definitely use someone that has a digital machine.

Good luck!
Eric