Sam,

Thanks for the pro-advice. Evacuating and recharging the system is definitely the best way to go! And replacing the leaky evaporator would be great too.

But some of us have small leaks that make it hard to justify the $150 or so to evac and charge, much less the $1000+ to fix the evaporator!

We've heard that the spec weight in the system is 1.65lbs, but does this include any oil weight, or is that for pure R-134a only? In other words, is there another spec for oil weight (say 4 oz). Does the oil in the system get sucked out when you do an evacuation? If you have a leaky evaporator, does the oil also leak out or does it tend to stay in the compressor?

You also say that you can't read the high pressure side, and that low pressure readings aren't good enough to judge freon levels. It is hard to read the high side on Volvos, or is there not a way to do that?

Sorry for the 20 questions (!), but you can help dispel some rumors here...

Gerald C