Camaro AC gas refill every summer, is that normal or is there a leak?
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Four summers in a row now I have been doing the same thing, and I finally decided to ask people who know better than me. I have a 2014 Camaro SS that I drive to work and sometimes take out on weekends with friends. Every year around May the AC starts blowing less cold, so I take it to a garage, they refill the gas, and it works great for a couple of months. Then by August it is weak again. Nobody ever told me why. One guy said it is normal for gas to slowly go down in any car, and another guy said a healthy system should hold its gas for years without a top up. I trust the second one a bit more, but I am not sure. This year I decided to stop just paying and forgetting. I looked online one night to understand how the gas, the compressor and the little rubber seals work together, and I opened a page about Camaro cars on a Sharjah website. It explained that a slow leak can be so small you never see any oil or drips, and that is why it takes months for the cold to fade. That made a lot of sense to me. My friend from the gym told me to just search for Camaro AC gas refill near Industrial Area 11 and pick the cheapest one, but I feel that would only repeat the same cycle. My questions are simple. If the gas drops every summer, should I ask the garage to find the leak first instead of refilling again? Is a dye test or a pressure test better for a small leak? Also, can old seals and hoses on a car that is ten years old be the cause, and are they expensive to change? And how much gas should a proper refill actually put in, because last time the guy did not even show me the gauge. If you had the same yearly problem, please tell me what you found in the end and what it cost you. Thank you.