AC not as cold as it used to be
 

My ML430's air does not get as cold as it used to. Has anyone added freon to their AC? If so, what is the procedure? I could not find it in this forum. Thanks in advance!

Google "Auto Refrigerant". The new R134A is very simple to recharge. The high pressure and low pressure lines have two different sizes and so you can't make a mistake. The low pressure port (where you add the refrigerant) runs along the back side of the engine compartment by the battery and the coolent resevoir.

The gauges on the do-it-yourself cheapo kits are, ah, less than accurate. Plus if you are not in a cool shaded area the settings shown aren't correct anyway. The hotter the ambiant temperature the higher the correct pressure should be.

I would recommend taking it to any decent shop that does A/C work. Most have a fairly inexpensive "check and charge up" service.

If you do it yourself consider purchasing one can with leak detecting dye. If your system is very low it can take quite a while to recharge so don't worry if you don't see anything happening quickly. This is normal. However you should also take care that you don't overcharge the system.

Good luck!

Thanks Gene!

I have done this on my Explorer before and that was easy like you said.

Initially I couldn't locate the ports on my own, so I took it to the shop that I let do my heavy Explorer work. The manager told me "We don't have the equipment to recharge the AC on one of those, it's very complicated." That's why I posted here. I didn't think it would be that much different!

Take it somewhere else. It is a standard system for what they would be doing and is bog simple. If you do take it to a shop you may have to show them where the high pressure port is. It is on the front left (driver) side _in_front_ of the radiator. Not on the back/engine side. Kind of quirky but it does make it easy to get to.

*edit* - This may be misleading. It is off the side of the radiator but you approach it from the front. *edit*

I was dropping off a fleet vehicle at a Firestone shop today and asked if they would do the check and the counter guy said "no problem" though he did say that if there was a problem on the cabin side that they may not want to do the work. But for a standard pressure check and fill there isn't anything different with these vehicles.

ck cabin air filter?
 

its amazing how stopped up they can get. costs nothing to check. good luck

DIY works for awhile but....
 

I limped along with the interdynamics kits available at autozone, etc, for 2 yrs but finally the whole A/C system had to be replaced to the tune of $2800. LOL