2006 GP AC issues.....

[gdbyrd]

I've been kinda noticing a decrease in the cooling abilities of my AC for the past week or so. As I drove the car longer, it seemed to get cooler air. The other day, the AC totally quit. It now only blows hot air. I had a similar issue happen with a S10 years ago, and still had one of those cheapo refill lines. So I tapped the low side today to try to recharge it and the pressure was over 80. I had the car running with the AC on, fan at full blast.

I'd like as much advice on this as I can get. There are only two AC shops in this area. Both of which have lied to me in the past, and tried to screw me into buying complete AC systems for two different vehicles when one was a blown fuse, and the other had a leak that needed to be fixed and a recharge. So I'm against taking it to a shop as my first resort.

Is there any advice you can give me to try before I take it in?

The car has 67k miles on it. The only other problem it has is that when it's cold, it has a rough idle on start up only. After 3-4 seconds it runs fine and it drives fine. Plenty of power, etc.

[Fivefingerdeathpunch]

Possible blend door issue?

If the compressor is still working, then I'd look there.

[gdbyrd]

Well, this morning when I got into my car, I realized I didn't have the AC turned on when I was trying to refill it with 134. So I reconnected that, and it was a little low, at about 40 PSI(it's 104 out today). I topped it off at about 50 psi and the air temp was cool, but not cold. As the car warmed up, the air became hot again.

I went and picked up one of the blend door actuators from autozone. On the way home for the heck of it I flipped the AC on and it's working now. I adjusted the temp from cold to hot and it worked accordingly.

What's your suggestion? Should I still replace the motor? Should I take it in and have the coolant system flushed and recharged?

Thanks again.

[Scottydoggs]

sounds like you have a slow actuator, its probably on its way out.

you can open your old one up and check to see if its got cracked gears as well.

[gdbyrd]

How difficult is it to get it out of there? I read a how to here: http://www.grandprixforums.net/blend...ent-21941.html and taking apart the dash sounds like it's going to suck. But I could be wrong. I plan on selling my GP :*( as I don't drive it but maybe 2k miles a year, but I don't want to screw the next person that buys it. If this is going to be a difficult fix I'll wait until I have more time off next week.

[Scottydoggs]

my guess is your doing the drives side...its not all that bad, its just tight up in there, you need to stick your hand up from underneath. all that front stuff you really only removing that so you can see what your going in after. a flash light works well.

that write there is about as good as it gets info wise.

and they are bolted in with very small bolts, 1/4 drive sockets are needed. a nut driver attachment helps to. or lots of extensions and U joint swivels.


pass side is a walk in the park, take the glove box out, and look to your left, you'll see it.

[gdbyrd]

That's what I was going to ask next. Which side is it on? Is there more than one? I don't have dual climate control. I did have hot air coming in on both sides.

[Scottydoggs]

not sure if you have 1 or 2 of them, id remove the glove box to see if you got one there. if not then its on the driver side.

taking off the plastic and knee bolster is not hard, to just look in there to see if its there. we're talking like 10 minutes tops to open it up.

[gdbyrd]

I checked the drivers side first, no dice. Working on the passenger side now. How do you get the glovebox out? I can't get to the bottom two sets of screws.

[Scottydoggs]

take that cover off the bottom, and you should have a few screws holding the bottom, then wedge it out of the hole.

[gdbyrd]

Two weeks ago my AC slowly went out. When it was on, it'd blow hot air. I put about a can of 134a into it, that put the pressure at about 55 in there, and that helped a little, but it got a lot cooler after replacing the blend door actuator with the help of some people from here(thanks again btw).

Yesterday, I noticed that at start up, it would automatically turn off the recirculator, then turn it back on at random. During this time, the air would go from cold, to cool, to warm. Then it'd come on and stay on all by itself and it'd be fine(the air would be cold with it on). This would only happen when I first started the car. If I hit the recirculator and turned it off, then back on, it wouldn't cycle anything at all and the air would stay cold.

Today, it did the same thing again, but continually. Except there was never any cold air. I figured I must have a leak. I plugged my leftover can into the system and the pressure is still the same, but I also noticed that during the cycle of the recirculator coming on/off, etc. the compressor only comes on briefly. It comes on for 1-2 seconds then shuts off.

So right now, the recirculator is just coming on/off at random unless I turn it off, then back on. Then it stays on for awhile until it decides to start cycling at random again. The air is outside temp, and will sometimes start to get cool, but only for a second, before getting back to warm again.

Any advice? I can provide more information as necessary. Thanks again guys.

[gdbyrd]

I have more info to add. Where I live it usually doesn't get above 95. I was on a short vacation this weekend and it was 105 there. That's where I had the issues. I went out right now and was cleaning out my car and decided to recheck things and everything is working perfectly fine. Could it be an issue with me overcharing it? Being at 55 psi in about 85(at night) and then going to 105 temps? Does the system shut itself down when the PSI gets too high? I had to buy a new meter while away and I plugged that in, it has a different gauge that's harder to read and its showing about 30 psi right now, but it's a whole lot cooler out.

This is so frustrating. I wish I could trust my local shops. They've been so dishonest in the past I can't trust them until I have no other options and then I'm going to be at their mercy.

[BillBoost37]

Merged the threads together to keep all your info in one place and make it easier to diagnose.