Dealer can't find freon leak

[archer884]

So my dealer's been looking for a freon leak for a solid week now and they say they can't find a thing. Is there some weird place they should be checking?

Truck was also repaired after someone hit the bed and the back tire. Kinda curious if something could have been disconnected and reconnected during the repair; possibly that has caused a freon leak?

(Apologies if this is asked and answered elsewhere; I put "freon" into search and found nothing, but I'm pretty sure I don't get how the forum search works.)

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[GIjoe]

If he can’t find it then it’s prob somewhere he can’t see. On my f250 that meant ripping the dash off and $2k for labor. I had 2 shops and 1 dealership tell me they did not want to do it. Never got it gone but at least they were honest

 

[Pedaldude]

Freon is a brand name that manufacturers refrigerant. R-12 refrigerant was a product that Freon manufactured that hasn’t been used in new cars in decades.

The 2021 and up F-150 is using R1234yf refrigerant which is being pushed as the new standard. I would hope that dealers have had compatible equipment for over a year now.

What is the dealership saying exactly, is it a service advisor or mechanic telling you this? A week is an awful long time to not find a refrigerant leak if they were indeed looking for one. You would think that in Texas they would have experience working on ACs. I would take the truck to another dealership if there’s one nearby. It could be their one good AC tech is on vacation or sick and they’re sandbagging you.

EPA requires anyone who works on automotive AC systems be certified with them but the questions are mostly about regulations that aren’t enforced and the history of them along with some safety tips. Actual experience working with automotive ACs is another matter and most techs these days are only good at replacing parts and not diagnosing complex problems. Working on automotive AC systems requires knowledge of both the pressurized and electrical components of the unit. It also requires regular mechanical knowledge and often trim and panel removal, as the manufacturers love to bury AC lines in inaccessible places. A good AC tech is in high demand in hot climates and sometimes dealers won’t pay for their experience.

If the dealership is acting confused and confounded by your truck’s problem; either they’re stalling for some reason, don’t have a qualified technician or pulling a fast one with Ford. Tell them you will take the truck somewhere else if they can’t fix it, or just call around and find a dealership that will. The other dealership might even send a flatbed over or some drivers to ferry over your truck. Since while AC repair is a little complicated, to someone who does it at their job it’s as easy as baking a cake is to a baker!

The dealership that I bought my truck put me through months of Bullshit over my misaligned doors and the service manager had a better knowledge of gaslighting than automotive repair. I took it to the farther away dealership and they fixed my doors in less than 15 minutes.

Good luck!

 

[archer884]

Hey, thanks a bunch for your responses, guys. It turned out it was in kind of a weird spot (at least for the guys here locally), but thankfully it wasn't under the dash or anything. The leak was in a condenser hidden (in front of? behind? I dunno) by the radiator.

Thanks again, guys.

 

[Zyvin]

That’s a pretty common spot, but maybe it was hard to get eyes on it to see the dye.

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