Watch out!

A guy came to me the other day in his 350z. He had the Pop Charger on his car for about 4-5 months. Anyways, he came to me because he knew I could recharge his AC system for him. Soooooo....I cranked her up, turned on the AC and hooked up my gauge and saw that this guy was indeed low on 134a....like, totally out. So I proceeded to recharge his system. I check and its blowing cold and all seems good ...until....


WABAAM! not really...

but there's a steady steam that seems to be coming up from under the hood. I instantly think, oh no his AC system is leaking like a *****...and it is. Really long story short, I found that his Pop Charger (actually the heat shield) has rubbed through his AC line and is in return leaking all the 134a out. So its blowing cold but not for long. This explains why his system was on zero in the first place.

So ya might want to check your pop charger. I don't know if he mounted it wrong or what....I'm a Injen guy myself... but just wanted to share a word of caution to my fellow Z's.

 

thanks, going to check it in the morning.

 

it is the install. had mine on for 5 years and not a problem.

 

Interesting...

 

Had mine since 2004 as well but thank you for the heads up.

2004 thread


2006 thread

 

Sorry to bust your ***** on this - but why would you recharge a system that was totally empty? Isn't "empty" a red flag for some kind of major leak or other problem?

 

I thought that how the trouble shooting process went, they recharge it, add the special dye, and have you come in the next day and inspect with the glasses?

 

Good thread to remind everyone to check very carefully when installing mods - there is someone on this board who replaced his turbo and did not pay attention to the oil return line running too close to the exhaust and he is now faced with buying a new motor. More drastic than the AC issue but a lesson learned....

 

Give the guy a break, he's just trying to help out. Thanks!

 

Thanks for the heads up, never had a problem, but something to watch out for!

 

noticed how close it was when i installed mine. made sure it cleares and no probs in the past 2.5 years

 

I took a piece of fuel line, split it length wise, and zip tied it to the AC lines. Had my popcharger for 3 years with zero issues.

Good call though. Being that most of us are men here, which means any included instructions go directly in the trash!! lol Especialy with something as straight forward as a popcharger instalation.

 

I wrapped the AC line before installation of the Popcharger.

Preventive measures.

 

Wow how Ironic my AC dont blow cold air anymore. Started about 3 days ago

 

+1......Poor install FTL.

 

Well, I'm not Mr. Mechanic or anything. The guy just had the 134a, new I was a Z driver and asked if I could recharge his since he couldn't find the low side to begin with. But it was never exactly on zero--just very close to it...but it was not the most exact gauge in the world either. I dunno, just thought I would spread the word in hopes that it will save someone the misery.

 

This is definitely an issue. My mechanic noticed the same thing on mine -- luckily long before it caused a leak. He put some rubber around it to protect it.

 

wow....I smell a letter to the Manufacturer if a lot of people have this problem

 

Why?? As stated in the 3rd post of this thread, it's in the instructions to wrap your AC line. You can't hold the manufacturer responsible for you nto following the instructions.

 

OH! haha my bad. I didn't notice that. Well then I guess that was that guys own fault for not doing so....its one thing if it was a freak accident----but it actually SAYS to wrap your AC line in the instuctions?

That's a pure classic case of FAIL