My AC is blowing rather not-so-cold these days.

History: within 6 months of ownership (it's a 2001.5) I had some heater/AC vent control thingy go bad and was replaced. They were supposed to order a part that was not in stock, yet never did I receive any notification of this part being in. Last summer, in the beginning of the hot months, they replaced something in the dash, related to the controls (I'm at work so don't have the paperwork). 3 weeks ago, it was suffering from the same thing and they charged it with 1 can of freon (for free) and sent me on my way.

It's a closed system, where would the freon go? It has to be leaking somewhere if it was low, right? They didn't check for leaks and I suspect they wanted to get me out the door and on my way. Now it's blowing rather cool, not cold like it normally does. I've made an appointment for Tuesday, but am not happy about bringing it in.

Anybody have any ideas? Any experiences with AC on the 2nd gens?

 

I agree with your train of thought. It has to be leaking somewhere. Probably a very small leak. Something that small would possibly be at a connection point. And yes, unless they pulled a vacuum on the system, then your a/c cooling will not be at it's peak. Another concern is moisture. If a leak is in the system, then the potential for moisture is present in the system. Not good.

Sounds like you need to find another place to take it. It needs to be checked with a leak detector after they introduce a dye into the system. The part they replaced last summer was probably a vacuum servo. Not sure about your year, but I have read reports of one of the rubber a/c lines rubbing up against the frame (down low on the passenger side, it has foil insulation on it) and creating a leak, but either this is very early or not your problem, because I would think the leak would be worse than what you are experiencing.

Ask around and find a good a/c shop to check things out and get it done right. Good luck, Kevin

 

First thing I would do (being you're asking blind help here) is to purchase a thermometer to put in your a/c vents. That way you can see what your output air temp vs. ambient temps are. It takes a long time for the cabs to cool down in the desert as you are well aware. I know for comparison, as I happen to be monitoring mine, that coming back from the lake last weekend it was 115 out and my output temp was around 50 degrees (recirc with fan on med high) which is fine, but it took probably 15 minutes to acheive that. (it was 147 in the cab after sitting in the sun most the day). On the service side I'll roadtest first and see what the output temp is. If suspicious I'll reclaim the system and see how much r-134 I recover. If the system is a little below full I'll evac the system for 15 min (vacuum), and then recharge to spec adding dye to the system and ship the vehicle letting the customer know what I've done and to return if the a/c performance decreases. If they return I'll blacklight check them to determine if there are any leaks (glows bright yellow). In my experience, trying numerous testers, it is very difficult to find a leak with the electronic detector. If it's a leak that goes down in a day or two, often they will do ok, but if it's something that takes weeks/months to go down forget about it.

 

Road test today.....90 degrees OAT. Turned it on with my wife's digital thermometer from the kitchen (I did ask). 97 degrees inside cab, output in middle vent with it on Max A/C (recirc) and highest level on fan (4) it put out 80, then 78, then 74 within 4 minutes. I then turned on the freeway and it dropped to 70, 64, and within 30 minutes it bottomed out at 54 degrees. The OAT was 92.

I guess that is normal? I dunno.

Thanks.

 

A/C removes heat it doesn't cool...a 30* drop of temp from outside air temp is petty good are you in recycle mode so it removes the heat from inside air only and its not trying to remove the heat from outside air ??

Cooling is best after the humidity has been removed from the cab which takes awhile

 

The last comment from Pappyman just goes to show ya that the age old saying down here in Texas, "IT AIN'T THE HEAT....IT'S THE HUMIDITY" holds a lot of truth!!!!!!!

And it truly does down here along the upper Gulf Coast.

Gary

 

The dealer (my service guy kicks bootay) said I need a brand new AC compressor. Yeeouch. I peed my pants when I heard that.

He said that he talked to his manager and since we were good customers, he'd give us the $200 deductible warranty price for the $1400 job. Waaaaaaaaaay cool for that. So, I pay $200 for the entire R & R of the compressor. Not a bad dealio.

Now, I'm off on vacation, dragging the boat to Lake Havasu. ****, I'll have to take my wife's truck. Oh the bad luck.

 

$1400 bucks for a compressor.........I need to start fixin A/C's again sounds like a money makin deal too me

 

I had the same problem since I had my truck. I bought it in July and did not have problems that summer. The next summer rolled around and I tried to cool down the truck...no go. Took it in and they said it was low on gas. They charged the system. Lasted me the rest of that summer. The next summer rolled around and the same thing again...charged the freon...this March, the thing wouldn't cool again. I took it to them and told them I had to bring my truck back to them every year to have it charged, that it had to have a slow leak somewhere. Told them to find where the leak was coming from. They kept it for a few days and did a dye test or something and found that the compressor seals were bad?? They replaced that and it's been ok so far. But my deductible was only $100. Guess I'll know next summer if that was the problem. A friend of mine also had to have his compressor relpaced on his 2000.

 

Hey maybe we're onto a major recall or class action lawsuit here!

As long as I'm cool, I'm happy. I turn rotten and spoil like a peach in this AZ heat rather quickly.

 

Another thing that is a sign of low R134, from a leak, is the cycling of the AC compressor clutch. If you are low, and it evens cuts on, it will cycle rapidly, meaning 10-15 seconds on, then cutting off for 10-15 seconds. If your compressor stays engaged for a long time, 1 minute or more, then you probably have a different problem than low R134.

Chris

 

My a/c blows warm. I added a can of freon and the compressor kept engaging for 1 second then disengage for 2-3 seconds then engage again continuosly. Why would it do that?

 

Still not enough freon. You need enough pressure in the system to hold the low side above the shutdown temperature while in operation. The system needs about 40 pounds on the low side to keep operating.

What is happening is that a guess of pressures are that you have say 60 pounds with the system shut down. That is enough to energize the compressor and it runs for a few seconds till it draws the low side down to 20 or so pounds which shuts off the compressor. After being off for a couple of seconds the pressures normalize from the high side to the low side and when getting high enough on the low side the compressor turns on again and starts over.

Adding more freon will hold the low side pressure high enough to stay energized. Pick up a can at walmart with the gage. Charge it until the pressure is about or close to 40 pounds with the system operating. Open the doors while you do this and take it off max air.