spectaculous

Get a flashlight and peer through the grill to get a look at the condenser. If there is a leak, you should see a wet oily area near where the leak is. Mine was on the driver's side up at the braze/weld where all of these condensers seem to have the leak...

Pretty sure that was me with suggestion, tho i wasn't the first to try it out. Had to wait 20,000 miles or so before i had to replace that filter again. We had these thin plastic cutting board sheets we used in the kitchen. i stole one and cut it to the right width to slip under the filter before i pull it. i've done this job now like 3 more times since the 1st change, and every time there are leaves laying on top of the dirty filters.

I am coming up on my 5th full day since i replaced the condenser, and its looking like i won this one. AC is still blowing cold and easily can handle the heat Houston is throwing at it. One other question, i forgot to ask: did any of you replace the dexron VI you lost from the condenser change? how much do i need to add back to the transmission?

i had this problem a few years back after my first filter change. when you go to pull the old/used filter, there will be leaves sitting on top that will fall into the blower fan if you don't slip a sheet of cardboard or plastic underneath the filter before you pull it. i used a telescoping mirror to find where the leaf was. and then i stuffed my hand in there and fished it out with my fingers. i could barely get it.

I tried to buy a new dryer, but advance Auto said it was integrated with the condenser, so I hope it was in there. Thanks for the knowledge! I didn't think about the residual moisture may have raised the pressure slightly like that. That's probably what it was. I want to say I was near 35 psig on the low side when I stopped. I know it was at least 30 psig and was definitely not 40 psig. The can weight loss accounting wasn't nearly as easy to figure out while I was in the middle of it all. I weighed a 12 oz can of freon as 15.something oz on the scale and then by the time I weighed it during charging, I had added the can tap and the weight of the yellow hose was added. I just kept adding each can until it felt empty and had no feel of liquid sloshing around. When I closed the valves and removed the empty can, it too a sec or two to depressurize, so I figured at most was an ounce of gas left or it was the low side system pressure. At worst, I added 24 oz instead of 22 oz...

I did. I pulled vacuum for 15 minutes then closed all the manifold valves and waited another 15 minutes to see if it held vacuum. The gauge appeared to move ever so slightly off the 29/30 inches it started with. So I repeated the process again to see if my eyes were seeing things. They saw slight needle movement again. I definitely could see the leak spot on the old condenser I pulled. So I figured the only place I could have a legitimate leak is on the refrigerant connections to the condenser when I hooked it back up. I gave it my best effort to tighten that 13mm nut down. I really couldn't make it any tighter that it was, so I thought that maybe it is that harbor freight manifold gauge set could've been leaking. I tightened the 6 connections on it the best I could when I put it together but I decided not to wrap the threads with Teflon tape. Maybe I had a leak on those connections or my eyes were not in the exact same spot to reread after 15 minutes. You can probably guess where this story is headed-- I finally said f*ck it" and continued pulling vacuum on the system for an hour or so while i reinstalled the parts I had removed to get access. Added PAG 46 oil. I think it might've been 2 oz. Then I added what I thought was 22 oz of r134a. AC was nice and freezing last night and this morning, so now I play the waiting game for the next couple of weeks or so to see if I my system is leak free. What should the high and low side pressures be if I have the proper amount of freon?

just tackled this sh!t today. good god, it didn't go nearly as smooth as the YouTube video made me think it would. 8 or 9 hours. with some healthy breaks mixed in there. fingers crossed that it is leak free. I really don't feel like tearing it all back apart to fix it if it isn't good...

I appreciate your offer! and i may just call on you when i get going on it if i run into any problems. I bought a harbor freight (i know. i know.) manifold gauge set and 2.5 cfm vacuum pump the other day. I figure if i can get one use out of it, i've gotten my money's worth. I've got the thermometer (thermopen) and digital scale already. just need to get a can tap. didn't you replace your high and low pressure side lines/hoses? what are the part numbers on those? i might go ahead and change mine out too, to be safe... i have been adding freon every 3 or so days to stay cool until i can find a free saturday to do all of this. i am assuming i will need to either let it fully leak out the current way it is doing on its own or i will need pull it all out with a reclamation tank before i begin breaking any connections, right?

add me to this sh!t list. A/C has been struggling getting worse here in houston over the last few days. Called my dealership. They wanted $126-something to diagnose, said it would go towards repairs tho. I asked if its worse case scenario and is the condenser, how long and how much? they said $1200 and a month or two wait. FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK THAT NOISE. of course yesterday it is really struggling, so i went and looked all over for a leak. pretty sure it is my condenser, because it has an oily, wet stain on the driver-side near the top braze spot. I was able to find a $199 Tough-One brand replacement condenser at an Advance Auto around here. But i will say these things are slim pickins around here. i had to try 3 places before i lucked into that one. question i have is: after condenser replacement... if i pull a vacuum on this thing, how much PAG 46 oil will i need to add back into the system before i refill with r134a? the Advance Auto computer says 7.1 oz needed total, but i have read people saying you add only 2 if you replace the condenser? whats the right number? if you pull a vacuum, won't all of the oil be removed as well? SCHOOL ME PLEASE.

my 2014 CC has 82K and some change. No issues yet.

This thread is a perfect example of this forum-- too many irrelevant posts! 3 pages of posts with a good half of them posting real low mileage numbers . If you just got your truck, you don't need to post in here. I had to read through all of your posts for nothing. I know i'm not in the running for the highest. Just rolled 45K today. No maintenance needed except for the routines... I'm thinking i'll be lucky to get another 10K out of the stock SRAs.

None of the intervals you have recommended follow what the manual says. Let's assume most of us drive what would be considered "severe service"... automatic transmission should be serviced (fluid & filter) at 45k miles. The manual doesn't even give an interval for changing differential fluid, so 32k is unnecessarily early number to pull out of your ass. Also, the original iridium plugs should easily make the suggested 97.5k mile interval the manual says to change them at. On my last Chevy, I changed the plugs at 96k like the book said and it wasn't stumbling around for that last 30k I had drove it. I agree with your assessment that if well taken care of, these trucks should make it to 300k. But what the book says is good enough.

If that site is legit, then Mobil1 Advanced Fuel Economy 0W-20 was the highest ranked 0W-20. And since the owner's manual states that "SAE 0W-20 is the best viscosity grade for the 5.3L and 6.2L V8 engines", that would make it the best GM-approved oil for those engines, at least wear protection-wise. Good to know that what I've been doing is right!

Installed my Bak Revolver X2 on Monday. I have the 6.5' standard bed. No gaps anywhere. Install was easy. Best tonneau cover out there IMHO.

Which xkglow led pods are those specifically? They look much better than the purple...

I've already ordered it. Haven't received it yet, but looks like an improvement over the already nice roll-x. I have yet to see a negative review on the roll-x, so I assume this one will be no different...

OK. My last post just showed my ignorance of PCV air flow. ? you guys came back with excellent explanations. Call me schooled! I was a tad buzzed and not thinking straight when I clacked out that last response! ? However, it would still be hard to quantify exactly how much oil makes it to the cylinder intakes with and without the cans. I still doubt if carbon deposit rates are affected much. The proper experiment would be to take two identical engines, install a can on one, run them both identically and then tear them down to see the difference. But that is impractical.

How can it capture 99% of your air if it is only on one side of your engine? So let's pretend that it is actually effective in filtering oil. So now your driver's side intake valves are cleaner than your passenger side intake valves? How can this be beneficial? I think balance-wise, I would want both sides of the cylinders putting out the same levels of power... I am interested in seeing your experiment results. Real proof of cleaner valves is more than just showing how much oil your can caught. And if there is an actual issue that needs to be addressed, i.e. excessive carbon deposits, then GM will address the issue. I would be surprised if they said to add a catch can though..

No "personal" attacks here! But I must say that you are a better talker than a listener. You provide another link to a thread that does in fact show how these catch cans condense oil out of the air that they come in contact to. I never argue that fact. They condense oil vapor very well. But let's have a serious discussion about the pcv system as a whole. This can pulls oily air from a specific point and returns air with what we can all assume is less oily than before. My skepticism comes from the fact is that these cans don't capture 100% of the oil out of the air that passes thru them and also only a small fraction of oily air is diverted thru the can, where it returns to mix with oily air again and then eventually will make its way to the 8 cylinders. Just because you are capturing some oil at a specific point in the can doesn't mean that the air that is eventually entering the combustion process is substantially less oily than without a can. Call me highly doubtful of this endeavor. So, like I said before... If someone has actual visual evidence of carbon reduction due to a catch can installation, I am gonna pass on this round of kool aid!

That's the dumbest idea I have ever heard. I am not about to buy a GD thing. There was no belittling in that old post of mine. There is belittling in THIS post, directed at you because you responded to a very old post! Look, I have learned many a lesson from prior knee-jerk vehicle maintenance decisions in my past. I'm through with that crap. I need EVIDENCE of an issue before I turn a wrench or pay someone to turn one. And I also need evidence that said work actually corrects a problem. My personal jury is still out on these catch cans everyone is spending money and time on. Sure, they catch oil, but are they actually reducing any oil deposits that are supposedly forming on the intake valves? No one can definitively say whether oil reduced in one area actually affects oil levels in another area. My guess is this stuff is a wasted effort. If deposits are forming, I will be spending my money on cleaning at recommended intervals, whenever GM makes those recommendations... Until someone can truly show ACTUAL EVIDENCE of deposit reduction besides how much oil is collected, I still think a lot of kool aid has been drunk up in this b!tch... But I was done talking about this a long time ago...

Craigslist is your friend in this situation...

Just trade it back in for a 15 with what you want. You'd probably take less of a hit than trying diy...

from a 2013 press release of the 2014 mylink: "One of the most noticeable additions to the new Silverado is the available high-resolution, full-color touch-screen display radio that is seamlessly integrated into the top of the central instrument panel. This vibrant LCD screen is standard on LTZ and available on LT, and it displays a home page resembling a smartphone screen or tablet, with just a few, large buttons and easily recognizable icons to execute commands."