Air Conditioning Maintenance Service

[A2008]

Does anyone ever take their Viper to get the A/C serviced? My car is now close to eight years old and under 5,000 miles. The A/C works great, but I read that you should have the A/C sucked out and the Moisture removed, then the Freon put back in. It was suggested this be done every 3-4 years. Everyone on here talks about all the fluid, and brake changes, but I've never seen anything about the A/C. My first thought is, if it's not broke, don't mess with it. 2nd thought, maybe I need to do more maintenance!!

[johniew398]

Purging and replacing the freon every three to four years is probably a good idea; however, in all the vehicles I've owned I've never had the AC's serviced unless there were problems.

[Bugman Jeff]

The AC system is a completely sealed system and does not need to be regularly "flushed." Freon doesn't wear out, and the oil in the system will likely last the life of the car. The entire system is constantly pressurized, so the only way for moisture to enter the system is to have a leak in which case because it's a pressurized system, the Freon has to leak out before moisture can enter. If your system is in good working order, no other maintenance is necessary. Even if it's a bit low on freon, it should just need topping off. Unless it's completely empty(which would make it full of air instead of freon), it shouldn't need drying. The "preventative maintenance" suggested here sounds to me like a sales gimmick.

[labtec]

What Bugman said....... the system is sealed and the refrigerant and oil is permanent so no flushing is required. A car AC is a positive pressure (low side) type system which means even if it gets low on refrigerant due to a small leak it will shut off on the low pressure switch well before it pulls into a vacuum which is the only way for moisture to enter the system. Obviously a large leak would allow all refrigerant and possibly oil to leak out, if this happens moisture can get in. At this point the leak need to be fixed and drier replaced before evacuating the system and recharging.

[Cigar]

I just had my Gen II RT/10 air conditioning flushed and replaced, it took 1.35 pounds, no leaks or other problems, its' colder but it still doesn't blow real cold air, my mechanic thinks it just doesn't blow as hard as I would like, does anyone make an after-market improved blower? My experience with Chrysler products in the past was that they had the best coldest systems, of course that was back in the days of real freon.

[ViperPete]

Original A/C in my 2005 SRT10. Never drained, never serviced. Ice cold. 99k miles.

Wait till it fails IMO.

Hmmm....

EDIT

Now that i'm thinking about your car... 5k miles? Dang that is a lot of sitting. Might make sense to have the system flushed them. Its different because I drive the SRT10 every day.

[A2008]

Well it's been a year since I made that first post! Still haven't done any servicing on it, and it still blows cold! Hey I'm up to 8,000 miles now! But it's just like getting into a new car everytime I open the door!!