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Store bought A/C recharge kit. Am I screwed?

Discussion in 'Prius c Technical Discussion' started by bonanzoo, Jun 25, 2022.

  1. bonanzoo

    bonanzoo Member

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    I put about 1/4 of the first can last month and another 1/4 of the second can. I clearly did not read the back. It states that it is not for hybrid vehicles. One of them had basic 134a refrigerant but the second one had oil in it.. big, big mistake.

    Should I go to the dealer and have them flush out the entire A/C system and recharge? Should I stop driving for the next few days until I go to the dealer? Can I drive the car with the A/C off (even though temps have hit 100 degrees constantly the past few days)?

    I attached the products I used.
     

    Attached Files:

    #1 bonanzoo, Jun 25, 2022
  2. Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

    Leadfoot J. McCoalroller Senior Member

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    Yes, no, yes.

    Flush it. Those quickshot cans are a bad idea for the Prius even if you get the kind with the right oil.

    The Prius air conditioner is very delicately balanced in terms of refrigerant dosage. You are supposed to measure it out by the gram, and if you aren't starting from zero you have no idea how much is in there. There are frequently $ four digit consequences for errors in either direction, while getting a pro evac, oil & recharge is low 3-digits.

    Cancel all the trips you can, leave the A/C off for the others, hydrate & zen.

    Oh, and you don't have to take it to the dealer. In fact you can probably save money elsewhere- but call ahead and let them know that it's a hybrid with a contamination issue. Some independent shops deal with them all day long, others won't touch 'em.
     
    #2 Leadfoot J. McCoalroller, Jun 25, 2022
    bonanzoo likes this.
  3. bonanzoo

    bonanzoo Member

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    Thank you I booked an appointment with Toyota first thing Monday morning. I would rather pay a few hundred dollars for this mistake instead having to replace a bad compressor or whatever else I could have damaged down the road.
     
    #3 bonanzoo, Jun 25, 2022
  4. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    The oil is still the biggest deal, though.

    If the dealer has a HECAT H-1000 flush device, or some other A/C specialist in the area has one, there may be a chance here. You can review this thread for an experiment conducted by the Automotive Career Development Center, where they successfully recovered from a wrong-oil situation by replacing only the compressor (ASAP), and just HECAT-flushing everything else, then doing a full recharge with the correct oil and refrigerant.

    It will be more than a few hundred dollars, but less than the cost of replacing all the components and lines, which was the earlier way of solving this problem.
     
    #4 ChapmanF, Jun 25, 2022
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