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I have a 2006 Dodge 1500 truck with a refrigerant leak. Here's what I've done so far to find the leak.
I tried the compressed air and soapy water test. There were no bubbles when I sprayed all under hood components with the soapy water.
Next I tried adding a dye to the system. Again, so sign of a leak in the under hood components. There was also no sign of dye in the evaporator drain.
Next I used a Robinair sensor that could detect leaking refrigerant. It did detect a leak in the area around the accumulator. I replaced the accumulator which came with new seals. I pulled a vacuum on the system and within one hour the gauges had returned to zero.
Then I decided to replace all of the seals in the system. This didn't really have a noticeable impact on the system's ability to hold a vacuum.
Next I'm considering trying to isolate different areas of the system to see which area can hold a vacuum and which can't.
Please let me know if you have any testing ideas to isolate the leak.
It sounds like you've been very thorough in your testing. Most of the significant leaks I see are at the bottom of the AC condenser where road debris gets kicked up. The last real tricky one I found I needed an inspection camera to spot the leak with soapy water.
Also worth noting to check your equipment. I've gone looking for leaks that weren't there because the gauges/lines were allowing vacuum to escape over time, not the a/c system.
Good luck, stick with it!
I second Noah's recommendations. The only other thing I'd suggest is charging the system and checking the evaporator drain for dye/refrigerant. Leaking evaporators aren't super common on these trucks, but not unheard of.
One way to verify this would be to take both evaporator lines loose, plug one, and install a hand vacuum pump on the other. If you've got your connections tight, then a leak will be obvious. Do the same with pressure.
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