Freon leak? Rear climate control.

delicadjjapan

delicadjjapan

Active Member
After running the air conditioner for about 100 miles I got back home and noticed this underneath the van directly below where the rear controls are for the back climate zone control.

Any thoughts on where the leak might be coming from? Is this just an O-ring or a cracked line do you think?

Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
 

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From pictures it appears to be an oring but I would be curious to know why this burst. Maybe you get lucky and change oring and recharge?
 
DustAngel said:
From pictures it appears to be an oring but I would be curious to know why this burst. Maybe you get lucky and change oring and recharge?
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Gonna try and take it apart today to see if the Oring is the issue. As far as how it happened not sure. I know my son was in the back seat playing with the controls on/off a few times but would be hard pressed to think this would have caused it…but you never know those seals are old and it just gets older with time and regular use.
 
It was definitely the O-rings that caused the system leak. Removed all the AC line hoses in the rear and resealed with new orings and oring lubricant. Vacuumed out the system to see if it held pressure and it did, so started up the van and loaded the system back up with r134a refrigerant got it to about 40 degrees and now it blows SUPER cold air from the air con! No leaks. Just relived it wasn’t the compressor that was at fault too.

Thanks for the help!
 
delicadjjapan said:
It was definitely the O-rings that caused the system leak. Removed all the AC line hoses in the rear and resealed with new orings and oring lubricant. Vacuumed out the system to see if it held pressure and it did, so started up the van and loaded the system back up with r134a refrigerant got it to about 40 degrees and now it blows SUPER cold air from the air con! No leaks. Just relived it wasn’t the compressor that was at fault too.

Thanks for the help!
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My 96 has same issue. Getting it serviced next week though. Do you remember how much charge it took?
 
Well bummer...I just got the freon leak back from the same spot. Wondering if the o-ring just didn't set right. Gonna have to drain the system again and reseal with a new o-ring then recharge. I will take a look at the o-ring to see if it is broken, if it is I don't know what could be causing a new oring to bust so quickly...any thoughts welcome.
 
delicadjjapan said:
Well bummer...I just got the freon leak back from the same spot. Wondering if the o-ring just didn't set right. Gonna have to drain the system again and reseal with a new o-ring then recharge. I will take a look at the o-ring to see if it is broken, if it is I don't know what could be causing a new oring to bust so quickly...any thoughts welcome.
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Hey! I just noticed my Deli doing the exact same.. Leaking from the same exact spot. How is your system holding up now? Any updates? Thanks!
 
KWalli said:
Hey! I just noticed my Deli doing the exact same.. Leaking from the same exact spot. How is your system holding up now? Any updates? Thanks!
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Sadly still leaking after trying 5 different o-rings and spending too much on Freon to fill it up each time. The fitting is quite an odd fitting because there’s only pressure on one side to hold the O-ring that’s on the opposite side so really the pressure leak comes from the area where there is no pressure holding the fitting against the inlet. So due to this, I’m either going to create a clamp type, fitting to tighten down as well, or put some sort of gasketing around the outside of the flat surface where the o-ring area is and see if that works. Super frustrating at this point.
 
delicadjjapan said:
Sadly still leaking after trying 5 different o-rings and spending too much on Freon to fill it up each time. The fitting is quite an odd fitting because there’s only pressure on one side to hold the O-ring that’s on the opposite side so really the pressure leak comes from the area where there is no pressure holding the fitting against the inlet. So due to this, I’m either going to create a clamp type, fitting to tighten down as well, or put some sort of gasketing around the outside of the flat surface where the o-ring area is and see if that works. Super frustrating at this point.
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Thanks for the reply! That's a major bummer to hear you're still having trouble.

When you opened the system to replace the o-rings did you also replace the drier? I'm wondering if I should order one... Also, which O-rings are you using? I'm guessing you've tried all of them lol.
 
KWalli said:
Thanks for the reply! That's a major bummer to hear you're still having trouble.

When you opened the system to replace the o-rings did you also replace the drier? I'm wondering if I should order one... Also, which O-rings are you using? I'm guessing you've tried all of them lol.
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If you can't see fluid in the Drier when you are charging up the system pry a good time to replace. I did not replace mine as it was only leaking on that backside and needed a recharge. As far as o-ring size, I originally took out the one that was in there and tried to match it the best I could, the edges on the OEM one almost seemed squared a bit, it was odd. I did use this OEM one (MR146634) that I looked up but that still seems to leak as well :(.
 
delicadjjapan said:
If you can't see fluid in the Drier when you are charging up the system pry a good time to replace. I did not replace mine as it was only leaking on that backside and needed a recharge. As far as o-ring size, I originally took out the one that was in there and tried to match it the best I could, the edges on the OEM one almost seemed squared a bit, it was odd. I did use this OEM one (MR146634) that I looked up but that still seems to leak as well :(.
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Many thanks for taking the time to reply and sharing your experience so far!
 
These vans are OLD, the refrigerant system is having strokes. Black o rings not as good of a material as newer green O rings made of hydrogenated nitrile. Change all the O rings you can access while system is empty. Otherwise you are looking for repeat failures.

Kevin
 
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