Thread: hot ac when engine temp gets hot

When its above 90 or so at idle the car will climb up to 210. I've had two different thermostats in it and it happened with both. New 180 and the stock 195. My other two gtp's never did this unless the coolant was low. This one doesn't leak at all though. the fans work cause they come on when I shut the car off (ZZP PCM). No air in the system. Coolant has been more or less changed. maybe there's too much water in it (after all the different maintenance and leak fixing)? So that's sorta issue number one. Issue two is that on occasion when it gets that hot the AC starts blowing hot air. How are the two connected?

It might be that the gauge doesnt always tell the true temp, a scan gauge might throw out a different number.

Maybe your freon is a little low for the reason the AC sometimes blows hot.

In my experience the factory analog gauge is worthless on 97-03 GP's. When my analog gauge says ~110* my aero says ~80

oh, sorry. just saw how that might have read. when the car's temp gets up to 210 the ac sometimes blows hot air. the temp outside has nothing to do with it unless it has just been coincidence. when i'm rolling along the ac is cold and gets too cold sometimes. and I just remembered the low coolant light came on once at 210 but the coolant is full.

Well if you're not moving and/or the cooling fans are not on, there is not much air moving past the condenser, so you will not get much cooling.

The 3800 climbing up to 210 in 90° city traffic is perfectly normal. I put a 180° t-stat in my car as well just because I didn't want it running that high. No issues, but it was just my opinion.

Oh and also, my analog gauge on my 02 is very accurate. Right as it's on the 200° line, my scan tool says 200° F. The increments on the gauge do NOT indicate actual increments, though.