2006 Buick Lucerne, A/C Loses Refrigerant Charge

This 2006 Buick Lucerne came in with very poor a/c performance. A quick check revealed a low system charge and a little looking around and I found the telltale green dye.

A little bit better view. I like how the camera flash makes it glow similar to the UV lights we use in the shop.

The fitting seals need to be changed and the upper one it pretty easy since the bolt comes through from the engine side. The other one is not quite so easy. The nut has to come off from the grill side of the fitting. Start by removing the top cover. It is held in place by push pin retainers. Push the center in slightly until it clicks. Then lift the whole push pin assembly from the panel. Once all of the pins are removed, the panel will lift off.

I removed the top screws that hold the headlight assembly in place. I then found another one located at the bottom of the hole. I removed it. The headlight was still held firmly in place. I guess you are supposed to remove the whole front fascia to get the headlight out of the way.

I did not want to do all of that so I decided to use a short 13 mm wrench to see if I could work down in the hole. I could and did but could not take a picture with my hand down in there.

It only took a few short wrench movements to loosen the nut enough to finish taking off with my finger tips.

Once all of the fasteners were loose it was just a matter of maneuvering the lines around enough to clean them and install new sealing washers.

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Time to vacuum it down and recharge the system. As a side not this vehicle had the condenser changed about 18 months ago when it was in a body shop for a front end  repair.

After the system was recharged I used a degreaser and cleaned up all of the oil and dye residue.

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