R134A leak?

[Chris]

I have numbness in the tip of my tongue and my lips just in front of it and there is a weird taste I cannot describe. The numbness has diminished in the last 15 minutes since getting out of the truck but the taste is still there. Is this s symptom of breathing R134A?

I charged my system yesterday. I watched Eric’s video and it had pressure with the Compressor cycling inside 10 seconds. I added R134A (says so in big letters on Compressor) and it started to run longer and then stayed on near the end of 18 oz can. I added 12 oz more to get the indicator further into the green zone and its running very cold now.
I only drove it a few miles yesterday and today I took it to the car wash and drove home I had the motor and AC running the whole time without shutting it off. When I got home I noticed that my lips and tongue were numb. Since this AC was not charged when I bought the truck, its a 94 Dak with 142K+ I had assumed like a lot of the stuff I have fixed and replaced on it maintenance was not done. IDK why the AC had gone warm as I write I can think of no valid reason for it except leak. I will have to get a detector or take it in.

Topic

[college man]

Unless the refrigerant was coming at you through the vents from the evap can’t
explain the symptoms. If that is the case of the evap leak you are lucky you did
not get asphyxiated.

[Chris]

Thanks College.
I expect if it is a leak that it must be small the air is still very cold. It’s just possible I splashed myself with something at the car wash and didn’t take notice while I was scrubbing the truck. .

[college man]

[quote=”94newtome” post=139060]Thanks College.
I expect if it is a leak that it must be small the air is still very cold. It’s just possible I splashed myself with something at the car wash and didn’t take notice while I was scrubbing the truck. .[/quote]

Ok. Hope your alright. 🙂

[Chris]

I spoke to an AC guy. He said that was not a known symptom of breathing R134A he ever heard of. So I probably did splash something onto my lips at the car wash.
He also recommended that I add dye to the system and since that will cost $70 I decided to drive it until it shows me symptoms. It still had pressure when I added the refrigerant so maybe it had leaked off naturally via the suspiciously loose looking connectors around the evap canister.

[EricTheCarGuy]

I’ve never heard of those symptoms associated with inhaling R134a. That said, you should have vacuumed down the system and let it sit to make sure there weren’t any leaks before filling it. As I stated in the video you mentioned, if it can’t hold vacuum, it can’t hold refrigerant. Also, it helps remove the moisture in the system.

Hope your symptoms abate. Keep us updated if you run into any issues.

[Chris]

Thank You. The symptoms went away in an hour or so. I expect I splashed something onto my lips.
I made the call because I do not have a vacuum pump or the correct gauge set on the AC system being tight because it had a pretty good amount of pressure when I depressed the Schrader valve. It is still cold and if it changes I’ll go in to have it checked out.

[Author]

Replies