2005 AC leak

Are you talking about the evaporator which is in the passenger compartment and would be difficult to replace; or are you talking about the condenser which is mounted in front of the engine radiator and sometimes can be damaged when a rock hits it?

If you are referring to the condenser, you can buy the correct replacement for $231 (which includes the receiver dryer) and it should not be too hard to replace.
2005 Toyota Prius Parts - AutoNation Toyota Gulf Freeway Parts

After the part is replaced, then take the car to the dealer to have the system put on vacuum, then recharged with R-134a.

 

That is correct, the dashboard has to be removed for access.

 

When the compressor is running, ambient air temp is 86 - 95 degrees F, the fan speed is maximum, the cabin air temp is MAX COLD (or 65 degrees F, whatever the lowest setting is), and the doors are open, the low pressure spec is 0.15 - 0.25 MPa while the high pressure spec is 1.37 - 1.57 MPa. (I'll leave it to you to convert to psi or whatever measurement standard you need.)

There is no spec when the compressor is not running.

When I refill R-134a, I use the low pressure spec to determine how much refrigerant to add.

 

When you say "more", do you mean that you want the temperature from the air conditioner vent outlets to be higher than 35-36 degrees F?

I would use the middle of the low pressure spec, 0.2 MPa or 29 psi, when adding R-134a. The Prius refrigerant capacity is not very high and therefore not much needs to be added to achieve the spec.

R-134a is supposed to be liquid in the high pressure area and gaseous in the low pressure area. The change of state from liquid to gas is how the refrigerant effect is achieved. R-134a would become a solid at a very low temperature, -154 degrees F.

So you don't have to worry about it being sluggish but you do have to worry about adding excess refrigerant which would impair the cooling efficiency.

 

stop leak never works for anything. its just a way to take some money from you.
I would want someone to put some dye in the system to verify it is the evaporator leaking. apparently, Toyota dealers seem to have lousy technicians. it sure would suck to have the evaporator replaced if all you have is a leaky Schrader valve.

 

Sadly, that's partly because your Prius is private property but the atmosphere is a commons.

How about some middle ground? The real pain is the labor (instrument panel out is tedious). You can get the evap from the online Toyota dealers around $215 and the dryer for about $70. Without digging out the instrument panel (which is the painful part anyway), the dealer might not even be sure whether you need an evaporator, as opposed to, say, O rings in the joints near the evaporator. (Or, if they are sure, did you ask what made them sure?)

That labor makes up such a big portion of the total price makes a job a good candidate for DIY. How about removing most of the instrument panel and (carefully) driving to your friendly neighborhood A/C shoppe to really pinpoint the leak (now that they can see stuff) and replace the parts as needed? If it isn't the evap, send your unopened one back. If the local shoppe has equipment that isn't contaminated with non-ND-11 oil, they can even do your evac-and-recharge for you and send you back home to assemble your instrument panel.

See Bill the Engineer's Hybrid Convertible Project thread for evidence you can drive the car with much of the panel out.

I have never done any such thing that I would publicly admit to on this forum.

Works best if your friendly A/C shoppe is nearby and on a route not frequented by cops.

-Chap

 

a $15/can refrigerant, with oil, safe for hybrids?

I have read plenty warning against oil in Prius A/C refrigerant. Toyota says if oil+ refrigerant is used, the entire system should be replaced. So I am skeptical.

Were you able to find any external data that supported the claims of this Amazon product?