2004 Stratus

[Promod]

I'm looking for ideas on a 2004 Dodge Stratus. The system was a bit low so I charged it with 15 oz. of freon. At idle the vent air was warm with pressures at 90/145. At 2,000 rpm the vent air temp would drop slightly with pressures moving to 75/175. When the system was shut off the pressures were very slow to equalize. All this was done on a 95 degree day. Any ideas? Thanks!

[72gmc4x4]

As far as I can tell, there is no way of telling how much refrigerant is in a system unless you evacuate and weigh or recharge to weight. So adding 15oz could have been too much or not enough.

Also I'm not sure how you charged it but sometimes the cans at the parts store will have additives that can throw off the oil to refrigerant ratio which affects performance.

If low on charge the only real way to fix it is to find the leak, repair leak, pull vacuum, and then recharge.

[Promod]

Thanks for the reply. I pulled it out with an a/c machine so that's how I knew how much was in there. I recharged it with the factory recommended 15 ounces with the same a/c machine. It appears to have a small leak somewhere but with a full charge in the system it still was not producing reasonable cooling or pressures.

I was mostly curious to get some thoughts on the pressures I was seeing with the properly service system.

[ice-n-tropics]

My memory is Stratus has a txv with scroll compressor which has a temperature protection switch (TPS)
less than 1 pound refrigerant charge is dubious
txv systems are typically slow to equalize
1)TPS will cycle compressor clutch with low charge and high side will be abnormally low while low side will rise with clutch disengaged
2) If scroll compressor has damaged discharge valve the pressures will be as you measured
hotrodac

[72gmc4x4]

Are you sure it's 15oz?

I can't find any info on the line as to how much it should take, but like ice-n-tropics said, that sounds a bit low.

[Promod]

The 15 oz. charge seemed a bit low to me too but after three sources said the same thing I went with it. The compressor did not cycle. My guess was there was an issue with the compressor but I didn't get a chance to do a lot of troubleshooting before the car had to leave for a while. I figured I would try to do a bit of research on the issue before I get a chance to actually work on it again.

What is a txv system?