Troubleshooting Air Conditioner Not Working

Yeah, so I checked and my car and it has the factory hose clamps as you described rather than the worm clamps shown in the pic (#80). So it's a good thing you told me about that.
I'm hoping that I only have to take the top one off to get the air filter housing out. I see a bolt #140 holding the bottom air filter #100 to its gasket #110. How does that part come off. Will it just slide out once bolt is out? I don't see a clamp or anything.

I'm thinking of installing a new battery in the car, ahead of the starter replacement. Do you know if it will need be reprogrammed at MB dealership after installing a new battery?

My current battery is around 5 1/2 years old.

I used a load tester to do a load test. Came back that the battery is good, but for some reason after charging battery to 12.6-12.7V it drops back down to 12.4. That charger I was using shows "Capacity Low" even at 12.6V

I mean drops back to 12.4 in like a 1-2 minutes. And stays there. Confused about the results.

Oh ok, I thought you might want to be interested in what happens as the troubleshooting progresses

Took the battery to a shop and they did a professional test, battery is good. So plan now was just to take out the starter, and take it to a shop for them to test it. If it's bad, I'll install the new unit. Or should I test something else first?

Alright, so here's whats happened since my last update on the starting problem:

After some seriously painstaking work managed to get the starter out. I took it to my local autoparts store for a professional bench test. The test confirmed that the starter was fried--the starter would not even turn (so maybe problem in the starter solenoid).

So I already had a new unit on hand, and again, after some serious labor, managed to get the new starter unit in. Once that happened, car starter right up! It's like it never had a problem!

So I gotta give you credit, you were spot on on this one!

I was worried my steering would be off balance, but I had locked the steering wheel and tied it down with the seat belt, prior to removing the coupler. I drove around on the interstate for about an hour, and the steering seems

There are a couple of difficult parts on the starter removal/reinstallation:

1) getting the lower bolt on the intake muffler (the belly of the muffler is in the way) I had to use a 1/4" extension to access it, but it took a long time to get it off.

2)getting the main power supply off the solenoid. It has a protector on it. I had to cut it off, before being able to get the clips off to remove it. But you can't fit a socket/wrench on the nut without getting that protector off. You'd probably have to remove the supercharger to get it off intact. The power supply cord sits towards the passenger side on the other side of the solenoid, so you can't see it when you are taking it out or putting it back in. I unbolted the starter first, before taking off the lead, because I couldn't see it.

3) repositioning the power supply to the solenoid back when putting back the starter, and getting it to fit into its position. Hooking the power supply back up to the solenoid is difficult, because it's a tight space. I had to simultaneously put the lead on as I positioned the starter, because otherwise you wouldn't get it on there and get the wire in the right place. And if it's in the wrong place, then the intake muffler doesn't fit back in.

4)removing the steering coupler, very tight space, and you need two wrenches socket, cause there's a bolt on one side and a nut on the other side.

5)dealing with the factory hose clips. There's a learning curve for using the tool to get the clips to do what you want them to.

You can see the unusual shape of the main power supply to the solenoid. If installed incorrectly, then the cable is in the way of the starter or intake muffler. It's tough getting it back on. It's even harder if you put the protective plastic back on the elbow of that cable.

Yeah I already got it all in place on Saturday, I was just explaining the difficulty. The cable is not long enough to put it on all the way first, it required placing the cable as I was placing the starter back at the same time. But once you are up there, you can't see what you are doing with your hands. And then the cable head, which is shaped like a bent letter 'D' is also difficult to deal with, because it kept trying to sit on the flat side.

So on my AC issue, my scan tool showed today that my refrigerant pressure has dropped down from 6-7 bars to 1 bar. Tried looking with my UV light to spot the dye (we previously put dye), couldn't spot anything. Any ideas?

No, I dont have one. I'll have to pick one up. I'll let you know what I find.