re: My wife’s ac in her car just crapped out

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Turns out it was a bad fill valve.

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Had this happen on my first car. Delivered pizzas one summer without reliable AC. Would blow cold for a day or 2 after adding refrigerant and couldn’t detect a leak. Couldn’t figure out why it was losing refrigerant. Turns out, the mechanic used the sniffer when he was refilling the refrigerant and because the Schrader valve port was in use, it was sealed and wasn’t leaking. The working theory was someone that previously accessed that port forgot to recap, and road grime/debris got into the port creating a small leak.

Always recap your valves.