onewheat
New member
Quick explanation - I hit my remote start today, A/C was off and 5 seconds after starting, I got a hissing and vapor cloud under the left front near the A/C compressor spraying downward. I immediately shut the engine off. There is a bright green liquid on the left frame rail near the LF shock and some on the ground - as in maybe a couple ounces or less. It smells like freon/PAG oil and looks like A/C leak dye. I started the Jeep back up, no noise, no venting, A/C works fine, blows cold and everything seems normal. WTF?
More details - '15 JKU with 34k miles on it. I bought it 14 months ago with 29k miles - everything has worked perfectly since I bought it, A/C normal, never have seen this issue before. First I thought it was a coolant line that blew out - but my coolant is not green. I drove a couple miles down the street and stopped at the dealer to look for a tech, they had all just left, so I chatted up two Service Writers and at first got the '$100 Diagnostic Fee' line and 'make an appointment' but I kept talking, obviously know what I'm talking about and they got interested. They both looked at it, checked my VIN (out of warranty, of course) but they were both stumped. Some other guy who worked there (no clue what he did) talked to me for a few and we discussed A/C leaks, factory injected dye on the assembly line and over-pressured systems. He suggested perhaps it was venting an over-pressure in the system. I wasn't going to argue with him - I do not know a lot about Jeeps specifically, but after being a Honda Tech for years and working on a lot of A/C systems -I have NEVER heard of such a thing. As far as I know, an A/C sustem is sealed and there is a pressure switch that will shut the compressor off it there is an over-pressure or an under-pressure in the system. If indeed it was over-pressureized, why vent today at 84° when it didn't after doing the same thing - running errands and parking, remote start, etc when it was 92° out? I haven't had the A/C system worked on since I bought it in April of 2017 and it hasn't vented like that before.
Any thoughts, ideas, theories, ramblings or answers? I'd love to hear them.
More details - '15 JKU with 34k miles on it. I bought it 14 months ago with 29k miles - everything has worked perfectly since I bought it, A/C normal, never have seen this issue before. First I thought it was a coolant line that blew out - but my coolant is not green. I drove a couple miles down the street and stopped at the dealer to look for a tech, they had all just left, so I chatted up two Service Writers and at first got the '$100 Diagnostic Fee' line and 'make an appointment' but I kept talking, obviously know what I'm talking about and they got interested. They both looked at it, checked my VIN (out of warranty, of course) but they were both stumped. Some other guy who worked there (no clue what he did) talked to me for a few and we discussed A/C leaks, factory injected dye on the assembly line and over-pressured systems. He suggested perhaps it was venting an over-pressure in the system. I wasn't going to argue with him - I do not know a lot about Jeeps specifically, but after being a Honda Tech for years and working on a lot of A/C systems -I have NEVER heard of such a thing. As far as I know, an A/C sustem is sealed and there is a pressure switch that will shut the compressor off it there is an over-pressure or an under-pressure in the system. If indeed it was over-pressureized, why vent today at 84° when it didn't after doing the same thing - running errands and parking, remote start, etc when it was 92° out? I haven't had the A/C system worked on since I bought it in April of 2017 and it hasn't vented like that before.
Any thoughts, ideas, theories, ramblings or answers? I'd love to hear them.