I have a 1997 E 320 with approx. 86,000 on the clock that's in great
shape overall. The air conditioning blows cool at best when you're
cruising on the highway, but gets pretty feeble when you get stuck up
in traffic, and we live around NYC. Needless to say, I'd love to get
it so it blows ice while idling, so any suggestions would be much
appreciated.

I purchased a R134a home recharging kit, and after attaching it to the
low pressure valve (to the right of the plenam) with the system
running it's reading around 40 psi. According to the idiots guide with
the kit that is way too high (in the red!) I know that MB do things as
differently as possible whenever they can, so is it possible that my
low pressure side is actually too low? When I goose the engine, the
guage drops a little bit, but never into the 25 psi range where this
kit says that it should be.

I guess a follow up question would be, should I bleed r134a out if
this is truly too high?

Also, the car was still hot after running around town when I did this,
and the outside temp was around 85 degrees fahrenheit.

Thanks for any help,

J