Let me preface this by saying I don't know anything about cars and am trying to learn. I apologize if I posted this thread in the wrong area. About 2 months ago I posted a thread about my car overheating on me. It appeared that the a/c compressor was locking up which caused my water pump to slow down. Long story short, for the past month I've attempted to do everything myself because I wanted to learn how to work on cars. I also figured out that my radiator fan is shot. It makes a noise like its hitting something. I spun it by hand while it was out of the car and didn't see what it was hitting, but could definitely hear it. I also saw that part of the fan was broken.
I replaced my condenser and that went pretty smoothly. I replaced the compressor, all lines, and the drier. I flushed the evaporator. I coated all of the A/C lines' O-rings with PAG-46 so they went in smoothly. I completely drained the A/C compressor's prefilled oil. I added 4.3 oz of PAG-46 to the compressor, and another 4.3 oz of PAG-46 to the drier. I spun the A/C clutch by hand 20 times, and also saw the oil come out of the other end. I installed everything and hooked everything back together. The hardest line to attach was the drier to evaporator. I pushed as hard as I could on it, and it seemed to be connected securely. I then checked to see if the system would hold a vacuum and it did for several hours. It didn't lose any pressure at all. Then I pulled a vacuum on it for several hours as well. As I said before, my cooling fan is shot and makes a terrible noise. I took out the fans fuse so it wouldn't come on. It made sense at the time to me to do that, but not sure if it still makes sense. The car was completely cold and it wasn't hot outside so I didn't think the car would overheat (which it didn't).
I started adding my first can of refrigerant. I purged the air on the yellow line, and began to open up my low side valve. Everything seemed to be going well, and all of a sudden I had a coolant hose come off and distilled water shot everywhere. It was the lower radiator hose that's shaped like a T. It came off of my coolant reservoir. The engine block and radiator sides of the hose stayed on. Then I shut off the car and closed the refrigerant can with my adapter and removed my high and low side couplers. I came back a few days later to finish the job. I went to put on my low pressure coupler (in the closed position) and the connection between the drier and evaporator blew off and PAG oil went everywhere. It was honestly pretty frightening because I did not expect that at all. I had a very hard time trying to install the line again. Finally, it seemed to be on and secure. I did the same vacuum procedures. The cooling fan's fuse is still taken out at this time. Then I proceeded to add my first can of refrigerant to it, and the compressor kicked on and off a few times. Everything seemed to be going well. And before the can even got halfway empty, I saw smoke coming out. I'm assuming it's refrigerant and probably related to the line that blew off.
I didn't smell anything burning. It actually smelt like refrigerant. It looked like it was coming from the condenser lines but I'm not sure. I didn't wanna breathe the stuff in so I left the area. I closed my refrigerant can with the adaptor, and shut off the car and removed my high and low pressure couplers. I'm completely done with trying to repair the A/C system. I'm going to take it to a shop now, which is probably safest. I wrote all of this to see if anyone has an idea as to why my line blew off, as well as why the smoke(probably refrigerant) was coming out. I also spent a very long time just flushing the cars coolant. Flushing the coolant is another issue. It seems like almost everything has gone wrong so far, and hardly anything has gone smoothly. Now I'm just demotivated and kind of lost on this. I feel like I did so much research, work, and spent money for nothing. Does anyone have any advice they can offer me? I really appreciate anyone who read my essay. Thank you for your time.
I replaced my condenser and that went pretty smoothly. I replaced the compressor, all lines, and the drier. I flushed the evaporator. I coated all of the A/C lines' O-rings with PAG-46 so they went in smoothly. I completely drained the A/C compressor's prefilled oil. I added 4.3 oz of PAG-46 to the compressor, and another 4.3 oz of PAG-46 to the drier. I spun the A/C clutch by hand 20 times, and also saw the oil come out of the other end. I installed everything and hooked everything back together. The hardest line to attach was the drier to evaporator. I pushed as hard as I could on it, and it seemed to be connected securely. I then checked to see if the system would hold a vacuum and it did for several hours. It didn't lose any pressure at all. Then I pulled a vacuum on it for several hours as well. As I said before, my cooling fan is shot and makes a terrible noise. I took out the fans fuse so it wouldn't come on. It made sense at the time to me to do that, but not sure if it still makes sense. The car was completely cold and it wasn't hot outside so I didn't think the car would overheat (which it didn't).
I started adding my first can of refrigerant. I purged the air on the yellow line, and began to open up my low side valve. Everything seemed to be going well, and all of a sudden I had a coolant hose come off and distilled water shot everywhere. It was the lower radiator hose that's shaped like a T. It came off of my coolant reservoir. The engine block and radiator sides of the hose stayed on. Then I shut off the car and closed the refrigerant can with my adapter and removed my high and low side couplers. I came back a few days later to finish the job. I went to put on my low pressure coupler (in the closed position) and the connection between the drier and evaporator blew off and PAG oil went everywhere. It was honestly pretty frightening because I did not expect that at all. I had a very hard time trying to install the line again. Finally, it seemed to be on and secure. I did the same vacuum procedures. The cooling fan's fuse is still taken out at this time. Then I proceeded to add my first can of refrigerant to it, and the compressor kicked on and off a few times. Everything seemed to be going well. And before the can even got halfway empty, I saw smoke coming out. I'm assuming it's refrigerant and probably related to the line that blew off.
I didn't smell anything burning. It actually smelt like refrigerant. It looked like it was coming from the condenser lines but I'm not sure. I didn't wanna breathe the stuff in so I left the area. I closed my refrigerant can with the adaptor, and shut off the car and removed my high and low pressure couplers. I'm completely done with trying to repair the A/C system. I'm going to take it to a shop now, which is probably safest. I wrote all of this to see if anyone has an idea as to why my line blew off, as well as why the smoke(probably refrigerant) was coming out. I also spent a very long time just flushing the cars coolant. Flushing the coolant is another issue. It seems like almost everything has gone wrong so far, and hardly anything has gone smoothly. Now I'm just demotivated and kind of lost on this. I feel like I did so much research, work, and spent money for nothing. Does anyone have any advice they can offer me? I really appreciate anyone who read my essay. Thank you for your time.
