A/C is blowing out hot hair on the max setting. Help!

Make sure both electric radiator fans are running when ac is on.

Warm up the car with a brief drive and then put ac on max cold and open the hood and listen to both of the fans. One fan is radiator cooling and the other is AC assist fan. Both should be on. Don't touch them though.
The other thing is the condenser may be really clogged. Look at the front radiator through the front bumper vents with a flashlight and see how clean the fins are in the front "radiator". There's 2 "radiators" in the car. The ac condenser sits in front of the regular radiator so it takes the brunt of road debris clogging and damage.
Also make sure there is the large plastic bottom engine cover in place because if its missing it exposes the condenser to road debris damage. Without that cover in place on the bottom the condenser is very exposed to road damage.
Many reports of rocks hitting the condenser and knocking holes in a creating leaks.

What is the situation with your car? Is it a rebuild title that was in a front end accident by any chance or does it have a clear title?

 

Your friend is right on. Its low on refrig because there is a leak alot of times fod damage up front. What is the name of the dealer you took it too please and please fill out your profile so we know what state you live in.

Is the cover on under the car? If not the condenser is highly suspect. Expensive $$$.

Rebuild. We see alot of those here. And was your car a front end like I asked earlier?

To your friend the ac system is pretty close to a normal car with these important exceptions:

It uses special PAG oil. Do not buy Freon from the auto parts store and try charging it.
And the compressor runs off 200V 3 phase ac from the Inverter so be careful digging around there while the car is running or in READY. Like they say in the electrician trade that will turn your hat around. Other than that its pretty much like any other car.

 

WE posted at the same time. I edited my post so please read it again.

 

Ouch. Front end is bad ac wise. Could be they never hooked the condenser back up.

Take it back to the dealer and pay an inspection/est fee. get them to tell you what they think the issue is. Tell them its a front end hit.

Tell them est only as you may not be able to get it fixed right away.
May be $200 I don't know or so because they have to inject dye into the system and then see where the leak is. I hate to tell you but based on what we have seen so many times it may be the condenser. Sometimes worse as many people charge them up wrong and then promptly burn out the compressor too which wipes the whole system out with debris.

I'm just a ray of sunshine aren't I?

Good luck to you.

 

I wouldn't waste any money without doing a leak test first. You have a leak for sure. Freon does not evaporate.
if its low its a leak. If you don't charge it up correctly you can damage the compressor and then you will have totaled the ac system and your wallet.

 

No refrigerant because there's a leak. The Prius uses a specific type of oil in the freon thats different than most cars. Its non conductive.

Search this site. Hundreds of posts about it.here's some:

Search Results for Query: prius ac leak | PriusChat


Take it to the dealer for an estimate. Cap your estimate charge. It may just be loose condenser connections.
They will charge it properly and die test for leak location or locations and then pray that the compressor is ok and there are no holes in that front radiator looking unit the condenser.

 

Excellent. Just limit there est charge or hopefully they'll find the leak and it will be a loose connection.
Report back here there findings. Good Luck!

 

there is no guess work with Prius a/c. find the leak using a GOOD electronic leak detector and some times that dose not always work the first time. Use a GOOD trace dye ( you can see in my photo album ) and the trace dye dose not always work ether, at least not right away. It comes down to this , I recover out all the remaining refrigerant, weigh it to see how much it in there ( this is part if the diagnostics ) leave it on the vacuum pump, recharge it by weight to the factory SPEC: 48o g. all cars are different!.

No you do not add oil unless some was lost from parts being replaced or a recovery that may have removed some oil with the refrigerant or a front end hit that put a hole in the condenser and it lost all the refrigerant rapidly with lots of oil.

NOT PAG OIL!!! denso ND-11, not universal ( oil ) . ND-11 is a ESTER oil and there are a few types of ester oil, not all esters are equal.

Yes the condenser is a vary common leak point on the Prius. If you do need one only get a factory TOYOTA made by DENSO condenser!! this is vary important.