A/C help

[RodgersNY06Aveo]

I own a 2006 Chevy Aveo LT in the United States and as the warmer weather is coming I wanted to test and see if my A/C works and it dose not the cars heater works but when ever I turn the A/C on I her the compressor kick on and then as it cycles I hear a hissing noise coming from somewhere in the dash area what should I do live in a place where if I drive somewhere I will be there in 5 minutes but for longer trips it would be nice to have working A/C any ideas?

[slayerized6]

AC is the one of the things I usually dont mess with. Your compressor is kicking on those thats good, so most likley there is a leak in the system somewhere; you can fill the system with a UV dye and look for leaks with UV glasses.

[BrianTN]

Same thing happened to me. My car had an AC recharge service in 2015 or so, so I knew there was a small leak. When I connected a cheap recharge gauge to the low side it read 25 psi while running and some PAG oil came out and it bubbled. Looks like a small leak from the schrader valves.

I decided to try adding refrigerant, and I got a $10 bottle from Walmart. I cleaned the service ports well and added refrigerant until the air came in at 40 degrees.

I have since learned that the service port schrader valve cores may be replaced without evacuating the refrigerant with a tool that plugs into the port, can remove the core, then has a quarter turn valve inside the tool. The tool then separated into two parts and the valve core is replaced. Open the quarter turn valve and the new valve core can be installed.