Ok, I just put 1,600 highway miles on this beast from my trip down south, and here are a couple things I learned...

1) I have a big friggin leak in my AC system somewhere which I would like to diagnose in the near future because the refrigerant doesn't stay in the system long

2) when the system is filled with refrigerant, the AC works great and chills perfectly, although I hear some squeaky chatter from the compressor during idle after driving on the highway (3K+ rpm)

3) the aux fan DOES engage! either I didn't have enough refrigerant in the system before or the temps weren't high enough, but now that there's a "heat wave" on the East Coast, the aux fan engages at idle by itself...

I found that the fat rubber-coated hose on the suction side has a lot of bubbles in the rubber and even some tear. I read that this bubbling is often indicative of a bad hose... Does it mean I need to replace that one for sure?

__________________
84 300SD - bought in April '06 with 237,000 mi