lol!

 

Why can I never be bothered to work on cars anymore (outside of work that is). I should be tinkering on my RX7, but I'd rather just sit here in the a/c and drink a cold one... Anybody else ever lose motivation to work on their cars?

 

Yes for like the past 6 months... but mostly cause I have no money.

 

Yeah, I guess that might be most of my problem, but I still need to do things. Poor Miata has some basic maintenance needs, brake pads are about gone, needs an oil change and a new air filter, spark plugs, clutch slave cylinder is blown out and the clutch is a pain in the *** to work since the pedal goes to the floor within about 3 seconds (have to move fast to get it in gear and take off). But really until I get another daily, which will be soon I hope, I don't have much need or want to fix the Miata. It's too ragged out. Paint is ****, top is falling apart, tint on the rear glass is starting to wrinkle, everything rattles, squeaks or pops, trans is on its way out... until I have something else, I can't make the next big step for it, which will be stripping it nearly bare inside and out, repainting and doing yet another engine rebuild with a new trans, HT and some other little goodies. Make it a dedicated autocross and track car and actually start using it as I intended when I bought it over 4 years ago.

RX7 project is at a standstill until I get a few more parts to finish up the brake and suspension part of the build, then I can finally get the rear end components put in and move the focus to the engine and trans half of the car.

 

Do what I do and blame it on mother nature and this damn heat wave. I need to fix 2 oil leaks, change the oil, and make water lines for my wastegate. After being outside for 5min I am soaking wet and just want to go back inside.

 

That too. I'm a sissy in the heat, especially when the door to inside the 68 degree house is only steps away.

 

Yaya...my new endlinks arrived. Now I can get to replacing them, the swaybar bushings and putting the stock brakes back on.....tomorrow.

 

My knowledge of a/c system is weak... what would cause my system to not charge above a certain PSI? I could put it on the machine at work but I figured I would try one of those cans with the gauge and hose built in for now. With the compressor running, the gauge will never go above just barely in the green zone on the gauge, low system pressure. Seems like I tried one of these cans before a few years ago and it did the same thing. Seems like it would allow me to charge until the system is at least close to the red zone on the gauge. I might have to just bring it in the shop and hook it up and purge and refill going by factory capacity specs. I'm thinking maybe the system is just full of moisture and loads of oil, since all it has ever gotten since I have had it is refills. Needs a good cleaning. Damn thing barely keeps the cabin tolerable. All the more reason to hurry up with a better daily and strip that a/c and all related components out of the car.

 

Mine sucks too, when I turn it on it blows cool for a few seconds and then blows hot.

 

Water. Non compressable. You need to replace the dryer when you do a recharge, or you don't end up filling the system with refrigerant all the way. Makes it very inefficient, hence not cold.

 

This past week I've painted about 2000sqft on the metal building down at the shop. Beats pouring concrete though, thats what my brother and 70yr old father have been doing. I had to take this week off to get a jump on painting so I lucked out. Next week I'll probably be between both.

 

Even if the system were 90% full of water, he would still be able to achieve rated pressure.

Water may be non-compressible, but the only thing it would do would be to decrease the effective volume of the system. Assuming everything else was working properly, he'd achieve rated pressure more quickly with water in the lines, as there would be less volume to fill with gas.

Imagine pouring five gallons of water into a ten gallon air-compressor tank. Is that going to cause the compressor to be unable to achieve 150 PSI in the tank? No. It just makes the tank behave as though it had a five gallon capacity instead of ten.

 

A new dryer is still advisable, I doubt it's ever been replaced, and no telling how many times the system has been tinkered with in its 17 years. I got it to blow slightly colder, but still no ice box. Which I don't suppose any Miata A/C is able to keep up with this oppressive heat, especially with all black interior and a black top with leaky side window/top seals.

 

Agreed- they're cheap, and should probably be replaced any time the system is opened.

I just wouldn't expect it to fix an "I can't achieve full charge pressure" problem.

 

Yes, but in an A/C system, compressability is what makes it work. Yes, it'll read full, but it won't work for crap. And, it won't allow the charge to evenly disperse throughout the system, therefore reading low, even though it's tecnically full. I realize this isn't quite making sense, but I can't remember the proper terminology. Trust me, it's too much moisture (and/or oil) in the system. A new dryer (in the Miata's case it's a dryer/accumulator) will solve the problem - provided the seals are intact.

 

Hmmmm.

Been putting a lot of thought (and rum) into this.

If the presence of water in the system caused the formation of ice crystals on the surface of the expansion orifice, then pressure on the "high" side would be abnormally high, and pressure on the "low" side would be abnormally low.

On the other hand, you should still be able to dump enough refrigerant into the system to get low-side pressure up to spec; it's just a question of whether the compressor would crap out (or the high side would rupture) prior to this happening.

I don't have a lot of practical experience with HVAC systems, so I don't feel competent to make proclamations here, I'm just not quite understanding how this phenomenon could be due to moisture.

 

Well, it was explained to me by an old tech when I was having the same problem with my A/C on my old Dodge Dakota. I know I'm missing something, but I only remember the results. How he stated it made perfect sense at the time. This was when his boss was trying to sell me a new compressor, and he took me aside and told me to just change the dryer. Changing it out and recharging with auto store cans made it work as good as it ever was.

 

Who wants some $10,000 tires? lulz

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/4-NEW...Q5fAccessories

 

i dont get it!

 

Insurance is giving you $10k and the only thing they'll let you pull are the wheels and tires?