How to Charge the Air Conditioner for a Ford Taurus

Charging the air conditioning on the Ford Taurus is best accomplished with a set of air conditioning gauges but can be done with a singular hose that comes with a recharge kit at an auto parts store. This procedure will increase the level of Freon but will not work for a system that is bone dry. If there is no Freon, the leak will have to be repaired first, followed by the addition of oil, evacuation of all air and moisture, and charging.

Remove the Schrader valve cap from the low side line. A vehicle can be charged only from the low side of the air conditioning system. The low side averages between 20 to 40 pounds of pressure and the high side carries an average of 200 to 275 pounds of pressure. If the Freon bottle is hooked up to the high side, the pressure in the high side can exceed the pressure within the canister and it can grenade (blow up violently). The low side is the return line from the evaporator, also known as the suction side. It is always the largest line coming off the compressor. The high side is the line that carries the pressure from the compressor to the condenser and from the condenser to the evaporator inlet. This is the smallest, thinnest line.

Attach the hose from the singular unit to the low side fitting. If you are using gauges, attach the blue line on the gauges to the low side fitting. Attach the red line of the gauges to the high side fitting on the small line. Make sure the valves are off.

Install the Freon canister and turn the valve on. If gauges are being used, loosen the yellow line from the Freon canister at the gauge enough to allow the air out and then retighten.

Start the vehicle and make sure that the air conditioning is on and the fan is working. If the compressor does not come on it is because the Freon level or pressure is too low to turn the low-pressure sensor on. The compressor should come on as the pressure is increased with the addition of Freon. If it does not, then there are other issues. When the compressor comes on, the fan should come on. If it does not, shut the air conditioning off and fix the fan. If the fan does not operate, the head pressure will rise too high and the air conditioning system will not function.

Open the valve on the canister or, if using gauges, open the valve on the low blue side of the gauges. Feel the low-side line while it is charging and as soon as it flashes or gets ice cold, stop charging. If you ar using gauges, when the low-side pressure reaches 25 pounds and the high-side pressure reaches 225 to 250 pounds, it is done charging. Remove the filler hoses and cap the fittings.