tbirdtbird wrote: ↑Thu Jun 24, 2021 6:33 am Glad you got it.

"was the fan kicking on and off" haha you didn't tell us that
I wire my jobs so that if the comp is on the fan is on, period

I didn't think to look until someone mentioned it.

You're supposed to recover any refrigerant, vacuum and then charge by weight. If you can't do that by yourself, you need to have a pro do that. Blindly adding refrigerant is going to lead you nowhere. In a perfect world yes. I had an empty system and a vacuum was pulled. I added three and one half ...

Ok we've decided the charge is low. Should I add more to it even though the high side is high and the numbers are raising and dropping?

There is no 2012 Caravan. There is a Grand Caravan, few different models. GCspec.jpg I checked the tag again and these specs are correct. Damn if I know what I was looking at. So my system is low at the moment. But is it ok to keep adding refrigerant? The high side climbs with every little bit I add.

tbirdtbird wrote: ↑Tue Jun 22, 2021 4:58 am The system is trying to equilibrate to the design temps/pressures and it can't because in my opinion the charge is low

OK, but how is it doing this??? What's happing to drop the pressure?

Even if the charge is low please explain the pressure drop with the compressor running. It's like an expansion valve is opening and closing. The clutch never disengages. The other thing I don't understand is if the charge is low why does the high side keep going up when I add more 134a? I'm definite...

You are correct. It is a Grand Caravan with rear AC. I'm going to check the spec. tag again today about the 134a.

Your specs are way off. The tag on the vehicle are something like 1.6 pounds for single, 2.6 for double. That's off memory so it's not exact.

I don't think it's the rear TXV. It sounds like a condensing problem to me. Is the condenser externally clean of any leaves, bugs, and errant plastic bags? Are the fins making good contact with the tubes? Are the fans coming on? The condenser is clean (outside). As far as the fans go I didn't notice.

This is what it's doing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ln_umEw8bfU