Thread: Air conditioning issue

I was driving my car about a week ago, using my air conditioning and it was working great. It worked so great that when my friend stepped out of my car, his glasses fogged right up. I've had NO issues with it at all and I really haven't noticed it getting warmer at all. Then yesterday I went to go use it while on the highway, and ALL I got was warm outside air. I cranked it, I turned on max and turned the fan on high (it makes both fans blow over the radiator) and nothing, rode like that for probably 5 - 10 minutes and it didn't cool down at ALL. could this be a fuse? What can I do to diagnose this issue?

Is the compressor engaging? Even if it engages you need to check how much charge it has, it could have broken a line or just started leaking. There are some cheap charge bottles with gauges in autozone. I bought one of those plus a leak sealer and it's been running on it with no probs.

How do I tell if the compressor is engaging or not?

Well, when you turn on the A/C you can hear it do a click and actually see it turning. When its not engaged, you can see the center of the A/C pulley not spinning. When it's engaged, it will be spinning.

But even if it's engaged, if it doesn't have enough gas in it, it won't cool.

ah, I see. I figured that if it had a leak it wouldn't cool so well one moment then absolutely nothing the next. it just seemed to quit so quickly, usually what I've seen before is if theres a leak it will just start not cooling as well and slowly it just wont cool.

Okay, I just did a check and the compressor comes on and goes off just fine. It clicks and starts turning without issue. With than in mind does that change the possibilities?

Probably a blend door problem.

Originally Posted by minichopper6hp

Probably a blend door problem.

A what? What the heck is a blend-door, where's it located, how do I know if that's how it is how do I fix it and how hard is that to fix? (Sorry for the 20 questions)

http://www.grandprixforums.net/f73/b...ent-21941.html

Isn't that the device that controls whether or not hot air or cool air comes through? or is it a device that stops air conditioner only? I get hot air to come through and I get cool outside air to come through, but just no air.

I would check how much charge the system has next. If you wanna do it yourself you can buy one at autozone cheap and plug it into the nozzle at the firewall center. Any airconditioning specialist here would do that for free here, but not sure there.

Anyways, eventhough the compressor is engaging it may not have enough charge in the system to cool.

I had purchased a canister of re-charge that had a gauge on it and a co-worker re-filled it this last summer (it didn't need as much re-charging as I thought I just wanted it topped off for summer last year) and he used about half of the bottle. I used it all last summer, it worked fine, and most of this summer it worked fine until that happened.

When I plug in the re-charge canister and check the gauge can someone tell me what the pressure should be at or how "full" the system should be?

A co-worker took that canister that I had, and it showed that I was 15 pounds below what I was supposed to be at. He went ahead and put the rest of the can in, and we could feel the air in the car get slightly cooler and at the same time we could hear it leaking out and then 2 hours later when I came back to my car tried the AC and it didn't work. So, I'm going to assume that one of the O rings blew out. I'm going to, as soon as I can afford it, buy some dye and see where it is and hopefully get it fixed. I may just take this opportunity to replace all seals (when one goes the others are prolly pretty close to going), get the system vacumed and dried (if water got in it) and re-filled

Also, just as a suggestion, in my area R134a doubled in price and is said to double again in the next month - 2 months (they are switching to a new substance). a 30lb canister here is now 170 (used to be 90). I'm going to invest in 1 or 2 30lb canisters before they go up again.

My grand prix isn't pumping any ac and the pump isnt coming on. I've heard the coolant could just be too low and can't build pressure to turn the pump on. Is this true?

i have a 2001 Grand prix GTP at first only the passangers side would blow cold air and the drivers side would be warm now both just blow warm air i checked controls and it seems like the pump isnt turning on. during winter the ac clutch will make a screetching noice and as soon as i put the ac on or defrost the noise will stop just wondering if the pump went it will do only one side at first???