When i attached the hose to the port and pressed the 'on' button on the gauge, it read 43 psi. Which seemed high to me. I pressed the lever to add freon for maybe ~3 seconds, not enough time to add much, and the gauge immediately dropped to 23psi and stayed there. So im guessing that first number wasnt an accurate reading.
I dont recall if the compressor was turning on with absolute certainty. But im pretty sure it was. Everything seemed to be working normally that i noticed. Just the air wasnt cold.
Im not sure where the condenser fan blows out to be sure on that? I can say the in car fans were working. And when i was looking at the compressor area under the hood, when adding freeon, I could certainly feel the hot air blowing out from the condenser location. A lot of it.

I only have the one gauge that came with the freeon. So I can't check both at once.
I have no idea if dye was ever added. I dont have a uv light to check with anyway. I could be wrong... its been almost 20 years.. but i dont recall freeon ever being added before. So if a dye was added it was likely when the car was being created. Im not sure how long that dye lasts in the system.

If there were a leak, is that something that will leak out while the car or ac is off? Or only when its running?
I havnt driven out anywhere since adding the freon up to 35psi. I might be some time next week. Im curious to see, after that ride is done, if the freon psi is still the same or if it had fallen. Im assuming if its leaking out then the psi would have dropped?

 

i was able to talk to a mechanic friend today. She mentioned that most cars built after 1996 have an internal check system for refrigerant now. So anything over a certain point would be expelled to make sure the pressure doesn't get to high. - Which does make sense as a safety precaution. It also lines up with what i saw. Not being able to get past 35 psi. I figured that if its at 35 psi and i added more and it wasnt going up, then it has to be going somewhere... i was worried about a leak. (which i can't rule out). But if it has a self check system to expel it once it reaches 35 psi.. that would make sense.

So it could be that it was all operating as it was supposed to.
As i said, i still couldnt rule out a leak or a component going bad or anything.. So it wouldnt mean im out of the woods or anything. And i dont recall ever having the compressor or any other ac part replaced.. so that would mean they are 19 years old. So age could be a factor as well.

 

Did it ever get cold? You are looking at the low side pressure. The high side blow off is probably 3-400psi. It will blow out or a hose will blow if too much is in the system. I blew a hose on a pickup in 1973 and it definitely let all the freon out. It sounded like a gun went off.

 

An AC system won't vent refrigerant until the pressure is at a dangerous level. There is also a high pressure switch that interupts the compressor power which is probably set to 400PSI or so. The static pressure of 134A is approximately the ambient temperature in degrees F if there is enough refrigerant in the system to be in a saturated state. For example, on a mild day here if I put a gauge set on my S-series both high and low sides will read around 70PSI. Then when I turn on the engine and the AC I will get around 30PSI low 175PSI high. Those numbers change quite a bit with ambient temperature, expecially the high side. Those cans of refrigerant with the little gauge are pretty useless for seeing what is going on and should be a little scary since one can't watch for excessive high side pressures. If you wish to go further I would see if an auto parts store loans out gauge sets and read up on 134A pressures. And again, the majority of AC problems are due to leaks. There was an AC expert on the other Saturn forum that claimed 99% were.

 

It did get cold again when i added the refrigerant. The car just didnt get as cold as i would have liked, for my animals safety, much less the speed of it taking 20 min to get from 90f to 70f.
If thats what a blown hose sounds like, then that certainly didnt happen for me. So i guess thats good atleast'


Thats interesting to know.
My car has been sitting in the driveway since i added the refrigerant 2-3 days ago. So i went out today to check that. With the car off the gauge on the low side read 81 psi. Its about 75f here today. So pretty close. But then i turned on the car, let it warm up to normal idle rpm's, then turned the ac on. Let that run for a minute or two until i could feel the cold. Then i went to check the pressure again. It read 27psi. So the low side pressure dropped from the cap of 35psi when i was filling it the other day to todays 27psi. Im guessing thats not good. Or is that kind of fluctuation normal after filling?


I actually jsut had a thought/recalled some old info. It might be the cause, or at least contributing, to this whole issue.
It was from a report over two years ago. I tried out a new shop for the first time. Worst one iv ever been to. There greed and bad practices make my old dealership blush. At the time, my saturn was about 17 years old. They tried to sell my on almost $6,000 of maintenance items. And that estimate wasnt including everything the recommended; and did not include anything about the ac system. - One of the issues was my car not starting or not starting right. Turned out it was the cam shaft sensor. They wanted 250 for the part plus installation. Later after declining everything, i got my own part for ~$15. But i did have them install it. I wasnt sure how to at the time. They wont install customer parts but did for that one so i could get my car off their lot. I later found out it was just a single screw. Took all of 1 minute. $50 for that. AND while doing that, they cut my vapor canister purge valve hose. That thing is rock solid plastic. You cant accidentally nick it. It was also a huge gash. And its location was just at the one spot where you cant see it visually when looking down. I found it when i traced it with my hands and felt something off. It causes my car to sputter and almost stall out from the moment you turned it on because of the airflow escaping. So i know for sure it wasnt there before my car went in. I absolutely believe they sabotaged it.

Anyway... that and more... so i tend not to take anything they say seriously at all.

But one thing they mentioned was that they ac compressor was leaking and the ac condenser was leaking. Now again, i dont take what they say seriously, but they did include two pics with the report. ... unless they were pics form a different car they tried to slip by me. It wouldnt surprise me the way they are...
But if it is my car, then maybe it explains some of this... (these were from 2 years ago.)



(sry i just recalled those pics...)
(They wanted about $2000 to replace those two. On top of everything else.)

 

It looks like there is dye in the system shown in the photos of the leaking compressor and condenser. If you get a cheap UV flashlight from Harbor Freight or Amazon it should be obvious if the photos are of your car.