air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

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finebead
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Joined: Sat Nov 29, 2008 10:26 am
Location: Houston, TX

air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

Post by finebead »

I bought the 2009 Vibe new in may 2008, has 110,000 miles on it. Sleeps in a garage, parked outside during work day, its my wife's car.

Over the last few years, the A/C seems to cool less well, in a slow progression down hill. Wife says in the afternoon when its hot, at first it feels like it is not cooling at all, but as the car runs for a while, slowly it seems to cool down. It used to do much better.

How can I tell if it is low on refrigerant? If it is low on refrigerant do you advise a do it yourself kit to add more? I do basic maint. on the Vibe, change oil and filter, air filter, drain and fill radiator, change spark plugs. Never done refrigerant but my son says he's sure he can do it. What type of refrigerant would it take?

If its not refrigerant, what do you think it could be with such a slow degrade?

At 12 years old on the car, I have been thinking of buying a new car to replace it. In a way I hate to do that, because over the years I've done a lot of the big maintenance. Alternator, brake pads, changed auto trans fluid and filter inside and cleaned the magnet, serpentine belt changed with the alternator job. Mechanic did the bigger jobs. Everything works fine, except the A/C. I won't spend a couple thousand for a compressor replacement, I would put that on a new vehicle.

What does the board say? This board has been very helpful over the years, I remember a thread showed my how to epoxy the power-on knob on my radio after it broke off. It is still on there! Thanks folks!
Jammin81
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Re: air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

Post by Jammin81 »

I just topped mine off with a can of refrigerant. AC pro in a black can and came with a pretty accurate gauge (for the low valve anyway)

I don’t know if I have damaged the system or over charged the high valve ! But..... it worked.

The AC blows cold for the time being anyway.....

I’m not a car expert but people were quoting me 1-200 us just to diagnose the problem.

It’s an old 07 car so sure it was just the need to top it up a bit.
She had a face like a box of frogs!
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joatmon
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Re: air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

Post by joatmon »

The 2009 owner's manual on page 10-2 says to use r-134a refrigerant.

Its not that hard to top off the system, let your son try it. if it works, your wife, and the whole family will be happy.

Been a hot summer up here, must be a brutal one in Houston.
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finebead
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Location: Houston, TX

Re: air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

Post by finebead »

Thanks for the replies!!! I'll try to do the refrigerant thing.

My son does not have any formal training on mechanic work, but he has always been curious and mechanically inclined. When he was getting ready to go off to college, his Sr. year of high school, I was going to buy him an older Corolla, but he said he wanted to buy a newer wrecked sports car and fix it. We bought an '04 Acura RSX at auction with a salvage title, he had the frame straightened, and had body work done, but he did all the mechanical work, replaced radiator, lower suspension arm. He drove it for about 8 years. On a later car (2001 Mazda Miata), the master seal was leaking and second gear would grind shifting in on his manual tranny. He bought an a-frame hoist on craigslist, pulled the motor out, pulled out the tranny, took the tranny apart and found a bad second gear, replaced the gear and he was good to go. Replaced the main seal, put engine back in, ran like a top. Then he sold the hoist on craigslist. I'm proud of my son, he is fearless when it comes to cars. He hangs out on honda-tech.com. He worked for Firestone for 6 years, tried to get promoted to service mgr. but they would not do it. He worked for a car dealership and independent mechanic shop as a service writer, then quit. He took a job teaching high school "auto tech", got his official teacher certification last week. I thought some of you may enjoy his story.
Caretaker

Re: air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

Post by Caretaker »

joatmon wrote: Fri Aug 07, 2020 4:17 pm The 2009 owner's manual on page 10-2 says to use r-134a refrigerant.
Its not that hard to top off the system, let your son try it. if it works, your wife, and the whole family will be happy.
Mine has been behaving the same way; cool air but not optimal. I just watched a youtube video on adding a little to a 2012 Corolla, so same engine. As the youtube poster stated, I know you are not supposed to overcharge the system. They guy just hooked up a can and turned the line on while the car is running and the AC is on full blast. He then walks over to a vent and feels the colder air coming out and then returns to the can of 134a and turns the valve off. Is it that simple or is there some other concern regarding getting the low and high pressure values in sync? I certainly would do what the guy in the video did, but I wanted to know the pitfalls and now make anything worse than it is.
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joatmon
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Re: air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

Post by joatmon »

The last time I did it to my 03 tacoma, I bought a can that had a gauge on it. Hook up the can, start the car, turn the AC on max, pull the trigger on the can until the pressure reads in the green range. I went to the top of the green range, since the truck has a slow leak somewhere, have to do it every other year, not worth fixing the leak.
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Caretaker

Re: air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

Post by Caretaker »

Thank you sir. I'll give it a try then.
Caretaker

Re: air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

Post by Caretaker »

Well, hopefully my experience will help someone save some aggravation. At Walmart, I bought the Super Tech tall bottle of 134a which comes with a dial. It is only $20 and is $10 cheaper than the STP AC Pro. Buy the AC Pro; it has a finger trigger to dispense the contents. The Super Tech bottle has a "button" at the top that you push down once the valve is open. I found it stupidly impossible to operate.
Following the directions to the letter, the gauge on the Super Tech bottle does not work very well and seemed to give me an inaccurate reading throughout the process. At first, the dial said I was already in the green zone (which I believe is true) at a psi of around 40. My goal was to get my reading up to 55, the upper end of the green. After fighting with the bottle several times, shaking the bottle and rotating it 90 degrees as I attempted to press down on the top "button" the numbers on the gauge NEVER went higher despite me emptying 3/4ths of the bottle into the system. I will say that my air did seem cooler inside, but still nowhere as cold as the professional job done on my HET. After a couple of hours, I went back out and attempted it again, figuring I still had 1/4 of the refrigerant left to play with. Repeated the procedure, again, following the instructions on the bottle to the letter, when I hooked up the connection, the gauge read 50 psi. I attempted to shake, press and rotate to fill some more, but again, the gauge NEVER went higher. So I'm leaving well enough alone, figuring the air is coming out a bit colder. Bottom line, spend the extra $10 for the STP product. I have relied on Walmart/Super Tech products for decades. This is the first time I can report a disappointing result.
finebead
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Re: air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

Post by finebead »

Caretaker, thanks for that update. I'll buy the STP Pro!
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A Psycho Martyr
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Re: air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

Post by A Psycho Martyr »

Having the same issue with mine. Last summer it was cooler, and the summer before that even more so.
I'll be charging it up this evening hopefully.
Oldewing
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Re: air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

Post by Oldewing »

Just finished doing all my A/C system on my 04

New Compressor
New Condenser
New receiver dryer
New belt
new Tension or

Compressor was shot, in order to get warranty on it, you have to replace the other things. There cost was not too bad,so I did the hole shot. A/C has always been weak on our car. 4 people and a hot day, you aren't none too happy....

total cost for parts (Rockauto) was just under 400.00 and I did all the work.
2004 base, bought new, now seeking up on 200K
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Caretaker

Re: air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

Post by Caretaker »

I totally agree Oldewing. I think the air conditioners on both generations are very weak. In the case of your generation, as I recall, there is a black dial at the bottom of the center console on the passengers side, where it dives under the dash board. I recall that the factory setting for that dial "short sheeted" us, falling short of the allowed maximum cool temperature range. I remember moving that dial another half inch to allow for the coolest temperature on my '03. Kinda like the anti scold device now inside every shower handle/diverter.
tpollauf
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Re: air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

Post by tpollauf »

Oldewing wrote: Wed Sep 02, 2020 2:42 am Just finished doing all my A/C system on my 04 .......
total cost for parts (Rockauto) was just under 400.00 and I did all the work.
Nice ;) You saved yourself some serious $$$ by doing this yourself. Great job :D
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finebead
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Re: air conditioner not cooling well 2009 vibe base

Post by finebead »

I took Caretaker's advice and bought the AC Pro. When I hooked up the can, the guage read at the bottom of the green range. I added a little, got it up to the middle of the green range (there are many warnings not to over fill). The outside air temp was about 90 degrees. I checked the cold air coming out of the vents, nice and colder. Wife drove the car to work every day last week and she reports that it is cooler. Nice little $30 AC tune up. There is still plenty of refrigerant in the can, so if it needs another shot, I can do that. I thought that is what I should do, but many on here have much more experience with cars than I do, so I came to get a second opinion.

Wife is planning to retire in 2021, and the second car will be driven less. Now I'm thinking we can keep the Vibe another couple of years, then maybe I will go electric car (EV). A friend is looking to buy his third Prius (all used, 2 years old when he buys them). He's looking at a 2019 Prius from Hertz, 35,000 miles, for $17K, and sell his 2014 Prius.

I do post a free blog about the stock market if anyone is interested, check it out at RichInvesting.wordpress.com .
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