Jeff, yeah I made the decision to hand it over to an A/C tech to have it leaked tested. Its just so hard to find a decent one. I went to one around the corner who said I had a big leak in my Thunderbird. I had it filled somewhere else and it was still cooling 100% 2 years later when I sold the car.

Leitz, thanks for checking. I had already called the dealer and was told it was the whole valve or nothing. Seems like the valve is not the problem and I will keep my old one until a tech tells me to change it.

Thanks all for shaving off my A/C labor bill a bit by letting me do some of the diagnostics myself.