So I just took my 96 EJ8 on a 9 hour drive down to florida and the A/c was working but it wasnt really that cold. I had it on full blast once I got to Florida and that was barely enough. So when I got here I bought one of those frion bottles from autozone and followed the directions on the bottle. as the bottle was almost gone the car died. I finally figured out that it was because there was too much pressure in the system causing the compressor to lock up and turn the car off at idle. So I released some and everything was back to normal. Except now it's not cold at all. the compressor and fan are working and so was the condensor. Do I still have too much pressure in the system? I have no experience to speak of when it comes to HVAC so I really dont know what im doing. I just want my a/c to be cold I'm in Florida and have to drive back up to Georgia this weekend. It's going to be really miserable with no A/C. I would like to avoid taking it to the mechanic because I am a student working part time and cannot afford it. Any help would be greatly appreciated! thanks!

 

Hopefully there was no "leak stop" in the bottle. If you put that in, you're now committed to replace everything.

The system really must be charged by weight to the correct amount as the first step to knowing what is going on. Some of the "quick lube" shops have a refrigerant machine and can do that for you at a relatively low cost.

Once you know that the amount of refrigerant is correct, then you would look at the operating pressures on both sides. Reading only the low side with a cheap gauge doesn't tell much.