How Prius owners Unknowingly kill their AC compressor

I was searching about the A/C compressor of the Prius, and i wonder what's the way to add the oil to the compressor? is it added before installing the unit and putting the refrigerant in?

It depends

1: Is it a new manufactured compressor in which the manufacture put a complete charge of refrigerant for the whole entire vehicle in the compressor.
And since the manufacturer knows you’re replacing a compressor most likely a burn out that means the person doing the work properly and completely flushed the entire system of debris in old refrigerant oil so there’s not a drop left in the system and change the expansion valve and flush the evaporator.

So in this situation the full OEM refrigerant charge that is included in the brand new compressor is perfect for the brand new clean air conditioning system it is about to be installed into.


2: Or a used compressor from the junkyard that you have no idea how long it’s been left open to the atmosphere.
What you would try to empty out as much of the old oil as possible so you can start from new again.

In this scenario if you’re replacing a clean compressor that was just not working but no metal debris.
Then you would perform in Oil balance. You could read about this in the OEM instructions if DENSO gives some good instructions with a few simple black-and-white pictures.

About pouring out the oil of the old compressor measuring it to possibly determine how much oil is still left in the condenser in the hoses in the evaporator.

To determine how much oil you need to pour into the new used compressor to make up the difference.

Always read the instructions for seek information from the manufacture of the compressor or the remanufactured.

Refrigerant oil even when exposed to the atmosphere for a short period of time absorbs a huge amount of oil directly out of the air right into the oil that is not easily removed not to completely removed even under a normal vacuum on a car. Here’s a copy of a link of a video I made showing how much moisture is trapped inside the oil boiling it out in a vacuum chamber. This was the new oriole that was just briefly exposed to the air through opening the And pouring it into plastic containers within minutes of contamination with contact with the air.

that’s why the guy who use shop compressed air that is just saturated with liquid water pumping it into cars trying to look for leaks especially on a Prius with ESTER oil.

Or buying a used compressor from the junkyard that has been open to The atmosphere.

That shop has the can of refrigerant oil they used on a car they opened it up and expose it to the atmosphere and put the lid back on it that’s it it’s gone it’s saturated it’s garbage to be tossed.
But instead they just reuse it in the next Customers car .