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Fucknag posted:House ac My system is 3 years old and it wouldn't kick on. Turns out it was a bad crimp causing excessive current flow which caused the cap to go bad. Cut the wire, recrimped the spade, and replaced that cap and we're running again.
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Jun 8, 2014 19:57
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Fucknag posted:Could a clogged filter cause the evaporator to ice up on an otherwise good system? We've got the system shut off in the hopes that's all it is, to let it thaw, but I've got my doubts and I'd like some feedback. Yes, but so can a filthy coil. I know it's a new system, but if the filters were not good enough, improperly installed or there is a leak past the filter and before the coil it could be pretty bad in a year. Besides......you should have a warranty on a system that new. Call them.
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Jun 8, 2014 23:50
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We were busy with poo poo today, gonna call and set up an appointment tomorrow. gently caress this 85 at night nonsense.some texas redneck posted:If the module is intelligent enough to detect icing (I really doubt it), it would shut off the compressor and run the fan. Yeah, this is about what I figured, its current behavior wouldn't make sense. Did this when i got home just now, turned off the system (and unplugged the thermostat from the wall to boot, as well as removing the battery backup... which had no battery in it anyway) and flipped the breaker and let the whole thing sit for like 10 minutes. No change. When it's been sitting, the fan will come on in the "Fan On" mode, cooler off. When it's set to cool mode, "Cool On" flashes for a bit, then when it comes on steady the fan immediately shuts off, like as soon as you hear the thermostat click and the compressor come on. But yeah, this is beyond my level of knowledge/give-a-gently caress, I'm gonna let the installers deal with this one.
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Jun 9, 2014 05:10
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I'm no pro, but that sounds like something in the control board for the air handler. Only thing that comes to mind - there's generally a 3 speed motor in the air handlers, and usually they're wired to run the same speed on both heat and cool (with a jumper wire between the terminals on the board). Most of them default to running the fan motor through the "heat fan" terminal when it's just the fan; if the jumper between the 2 terminals came loose, the fan wouldn't run while it was cooling. It's a long shot. edit: now with picture goodness  randomidiot fucked around with this message at 06:09 on Jun 9, 2014 |
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Jun 9, 2014 05:59
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My house AC went out right in the middle of last summer. Ended up that the stupid power company demand conservation box the previous owner had installed went bad. When I disconnected it from the unit it immediately started kicking on.
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Jun 9, 2014 13:20
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Ended up swapping some wires on the air handler control board (thanks again STR) and now I at least have medium fan speed. So it's commanding high speed, probably a bad motor winding or something like that. Installer appointment is scheduled, but they might not get to us today; turns out they're pretty busy in Fl this time of year. 
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Jun 9, 2014 16:10
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I attempted to connect up my R12 style gauge set to my 87 323 wagon and noticed that the high pressure side fitting is smaller than the low side and all the gauge/manifold fittings. I didn't see an adapter in the box or one in stores, is there something I am missing? Also is the switch on the compressor itself usually a high or low pressure cut-out switch? Otherwise, 8oz of ester and 18oz test amount of R152a seemed to go in fine. If this doesn't work I'll just take it to a shop for R134, I already redid all the orings in the system with HNBR and it held vacuum without issue, the high side port leaked a tiny bit until I cleaned it out with brake cleaner.
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Jun 10, 2014 17:29
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DJ Commie posted:noticed that the high pressure side fitting is smaller than the low side and all the gauge/manifold fittings  You probably don't have proper R-12 hoses on your manifold gauge set and have 2 7/16" hoses which are typically used in fixed AC.
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Jun 11, 2014 00:15
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That'd be it. Are there adapters for sale somewhere or should I try to buy that single hose for my gauge set?
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Jun 11, 2014 23:44
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DJ Commie posted:That'd be it. Are there adapters for sale somewhere or should I try to buy that single hose for my gauge set? Adapters are a available but nearly unobtanium. I'm using the same set of hoses you have with r134a adapters for car stuff, and I keep an r12 to r134a conversion kit in the drawer to toss on if needed. Yeah, it's a lot of adapters but it's cheap and useful.
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Jun 12, 2014 00:13
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Ok guys, finally got a set of gauges. The Car: 2003 Buick Century The Problem: A/C Not Working Symptoms: Last summer the AC stopped working. If you manually wired up the compressor it would blow cold but it wouldn't kick on by it's self. Idiot mistake tried adding some refrigerant thinking maybe it was low. Didn't fix it. Thought maybe it was the pressure sensor. Just let the problem go last year. Took it to a shop this year they said that it's completely empty and that maybe the compressor is bad, they don't know. They said every time they tried to get it to kick on it would blow the AC fuse. I was suspicious so I bought a set of gauges and sure enough it's completely empty. My wife wants A/C, so the options are either fix or get another car sooner or later. If the system is TOTALLY empty and the compressor may or may not be shot, and we don't know how the refrigerant got out whats the best place to start? Go to a junk yard, get a compressor, throw it on, put in some leak detector stuff and see what happens, or what? Also I don't have a vacuum pump but I know a few people who do.
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Jun 14, 2014 19:35
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Sounds like you have a few problems. I'd start with this fuse blowing......The compressor clutch may be shorted. You need to test continuity/resistance and see what's up. It also sounds like you have 1.) a leak and 2.) a bad low (or high) pressure cut off switch.
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Jun 14, 2014 19:49
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Motronic posted:Sounds like you have a few problems. Ok. Yeah I figured the bad switch before the bad leak happened. I was going to have a shop do that since it involves going into the pressurized system. But now that it's empty all bets are off. Guess I'll go google how to check resistance on the compressor.
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Jun 14, 2014 21:46
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1988 Range Rover Classic - Dumb question - Is there a way to tell what kind of oil is in the system? I dont want to charge it all up and then have the wrong oil with the wrong refrigerant. Or am I just hosed on stripping the system and draining every thing? FWIW - I plan to go R152 on this, because you know. Land Rover did a great job of making the correct size evaporator. And evaporator. Well, you know, its Rover.
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Jun 18, 2014 04:36
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They do sell test kits, but it seems like flushing and the correct weight pag oil is best.
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Jun 18, 2014 08:02
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mafoose posted:They do sell test kits, but it seems like flushing and the correct weight pag oil is best. Or he can do a taste test. (don't do this, but I can attest that they do taste different from getting sprayed in the face with both enough times)
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Jun 18, 2014 15:33
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mafoose posted:They do sell test kits, but it seems like flushing and the correct weight pag oil is best. I might go with the test strips. I'm fine with doing either 152 or 134. I checked this morning because I got hung up doing other things.... But the vacuum is still perfect.
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Jun 18, 2014 15:44
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Alrighty! My '95 Cherokee's AC was working OK, but I had no idea what or how much refrigerant was in it, and it was cycling a bit odd - rather than 2 or 3 times per minute that the manual specified, it was more like work great for 10 or 15 minutes, then shut off for 5-10 minutes, kick on for a minute, back off, etc. Kind of random. So I evacuated the system, vacuumed it, and recharged with R152, 12.8 oz. (system specs 20oz R-134a. I think I did the math right.) It works great most of the time, but it does still cycle off for longer periods than I would like sometimes. I think it's the "fin-sensing clutch cycling switch", AKA the temperature switch on the evaporator. As far as I can tell the pressure switch is a low-pressure switch only. The manual makes no mention of a high pressure cut out, anyway. I'll need to get a DMM/test light on the relevant wires and figure out what's going on. See, the controls apply power to one side of the clutch relay, and to the pressure switch, which then sends that 12V to the fin-sensing temp switch, which appears to be more of a temperature variable resistor/voltage divider than an actual switch, then the signal goes to the Jeeps ECU, which finally commands the AC relay. I can only check the low side pressure, because Jeep/Chrysler did a stupid, stupid thing. Instead of a high side fitting, they did this:   No, it just looks like a standard R134a high side fitting. It's some sort of block off. If you wanted to block off the port, why didn't you just cap it? Inside (apologies for the lovely pics. It was dark, and I was hurrying):   There's a spring and some sort for retainer in there. Here's where it goes:   I was really hoping that there was some way to remove the blocking plate and put a valve core in, but I couldn't see anything obvious, so I replaced it and recharged. (Yes, I put a new o-ring on it before I reinstalled it to charge.) I'm going to grab one from the wrecking yard and see if it can be disassembled - I didn't want to mangle this one and be without AC. It appears to only be on the 2.5L versions. The 4.0L models have the high side in the manifold block at the back of the compressor, I think. I haven't found anything online about this. Four Seasons and Santech make an AC Valve Core Service Kit that includes a "R134a high side primary seal replacement valve" that looked like it might actually be a replacement, but nope. Threads are no where near big enough, and too course. So, anyone ever see anything like this block off? Goofiest OEM AC thing I've ever seen. I'll probably ask more questions once I figure out which part of the system is turning off the compressor.
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Jun 27, 2014 22:50
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All righty, another help me post: I have a 1999 subaru impreza 2.5rs. A few years ago I put in a 6 cylinder engine from a 2001 outback. Im using the compressor from the new engine with the remaining original AC components from the 2.5rs. The AC components sat open to the air for probably 6 months during the swap, then I put everything back together and drove the car for a couple years. Anywho, last year I vac'd the system and put in about 12oz of r134a, following the guide from last year's thread. I stopped adding when I noticed the high side pressures were about 300psi and the low side around 0. I figured something was wrong and gave up until yesterday. I checked what pressures the AC was generating and they hadnt changed in the past year. I figured something was clogged, so I disconnected the hoses (after recovering the r134a of course), and was able to blow air from my shop compressor through the condensor, TXP+evaporator, as well as the dryer seemingly without issue. Sooo it seems like nothing in the system is completely clogged at least, but I don't know how I should proceed. I ordered a new TXV but I don't really know if that'll help. Any advice? dyne fucked around with this message at 00:31 on Jul 3, 2014 |
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Jul 3, 2014 00:24
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dyne posted:I ordered a new TXV but I don't really know if that'll help. Any advice? Sounds like where I would start. It's the most likely thing to be clogged. Remember.....air is not oil+liquid refrigerant, so it's likely to react differently. Did you pull the existing TXV to see what it looked like? The clogging my be obvious, and may lead you to other issues that need to be addressed or determinging it's time to flush the system before you do anything else.
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Jul 3, 2014 00:37
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Motronic posted:Did you pull the existing TXV to see what it looked like? The clogging my be obvious, and may lead you to other issues that need to be addressed or determinging it's time to flush the system before you do anything else. Not yet, it'll take a little effort to get it apart and I was probably just going to replace it once the new one arrives since it was only $18 and I'm not 100% sure I'll be able to tell if my old one is bad.
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Jul 3, 2014 03:52
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DJ Commie posted:That'd be it. Are there adapters for sale somewhere or should I try to buy that single hose for my gauge set? Yeah, I ran into the same problem on my Jeep, luckily they're not at all hard to find. Take your pick: http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_sacat=0&_nkw=r12+high+side+adapter&_frs=1 E. @Darchangel, I've never seen anything quite like that, but jeep seems to like to do questionable things. My '92 Cherokee used king valves on its setup for some reason. ExplodingSims fucked around with this message at 05:26 on Jul 3, 2014 |
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Jul 3, 2014 05:22
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2006 Saturn Ion, 2.2L. A/C components should interchange with a Cobalt. Noticed that every now and then, the a/c will suddenly blow warm muggy air - basically feels like the compressor shuts off for a minute or so. It generally does this immediately after getting off of the highway, coupled with a little bit of fog from the vents. When it's running, the air is cold (I've measured mid 40s with ~90 outside), but occasionally humid air from the vents, occasionally a little fog as well. I've had the car 1 1/2 years, and never touched anything related to the HVAC aside from changing the cabin filter. I don't have a set of gauges (yet - I plan to purchase a set), but I'm assuming it's probably low on refrigerant, and that the low pressure cutout switch is opening after the (sustained ~3k on the highway) RPMs come down a bit. Does this sound like I'm on the right track?
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Jul 3, 2014 11:55
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That sounds like what my suburban does on occasion. I would bet its the pressure switch going bad or just low on refrigerant.
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Jul 3, 2014 12:31
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Welp, at least Harbor Freight has a set of gauges for $60.  AutoZone wants a $120 deposit to rent gauges, may as well just go ahead and buy a set.
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Jul 3, 2014 12:33
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some texas redneck posted:2006 Saturn Ion, 2.2L. A/C components should interchange with a Cobalt. Sounds like it's low on refrigerant and freezing the evap coil.
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Jul 3, 2014 18:11
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Kind of does, that low of a vent temp with that high of an outside temp seems like that would be the case. Or it could be low and tripping the compressor cutoff, either would display the same symptoms right?
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Jul 3, 2014 18:12
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revmoo posted:Kind of does, that low of a vent temp with that high of an outside temp seems like that would be the case. Or it could be low and tripping the compressor cutoff, either would display the same symptoms right? If it's freezing the evap due to low refrigerant it is most likely tripping the low cutoff, unless that vehicle has an evap temp sensor. The puff of vapor is what's making me thing frozen evap. The alternate explanation for a frozen evap is low airflow. This is really uncommon on cars. But when that happens you aren't passing enough load over the evap to boil the refrigerant off, so it goes right on back to the compressor as a liquid and slugs the poo poo out of it. This is what happens when you don't change your furnace filters and don't have your evap cleaned in residential/commercial HVAC.
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Jul 3, 2014 18:19
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evilskillit posted:Ok. Yeah I figured the bad switch before the bad leak happened. I was going to have a shop do that since it involves going into the pressurized system. But now that it's empty all bets are off. Guess I'll go google how to check resistance on the compressor. Just for closure sake, I wasn't getting around to fixing this thing and the wife said "I want working AC or a new car" and $700 is a lot less than $17,000 or something so I said gently caress it and took it back to the same shop. They put in a compressor kit, which is the compressor, dryer, and 2 other things I think? Orifice and something else? Either way it works great now. I'll get it next time tho. 
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Jul 4, 2014 03:06
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Motronic posted:If it's freezing the evap due to low refrigerant it is most likely tripping the low cutoff, unless that vehicle has an evap temp sensor. Cabin filter is only about 2 months old. The ~1 year old one I removed from it prior was dirty, but not terrible. I do usually keep the fan on "1" (because it gets too drat cold even when it's 95 outside), but I've seen the puff with it on 2 and 3 before. Frozen evap is what I was thinking too. I have no service history on the car prior to my purchase of it (nothing even in dealer records), so there's no telling if the a/c has ever been touched. The low side port cap is missing, so I suspect someone's topped it off once - but being a car that's 9 years old (by build date), I'd think it'd need at least one top off by now anyway. A quick glance at rockauto doesn't show any temp sensors under HVAC except for an ambient temp sensor (which is apparently used solely for the temp display on the mirror). I'll grab a set of gauges on Monday; I'm sure all 3 cars here could use a little a/c love anyway.
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Jul 4, 2014 07:04
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Finally getting around to recharging my AC system since last rupturing the line when installing my Paxton on my 2012 Mustang GT. I'm running into a bit of trouble trying to figure out either a) if my ac system has a leak or b) the recharge canister I'm using is busted. I've located the fill port by the battery tray and removed both the battery/tray to access the port, slipped the canister fill nozzle over the port and it's not registering anything in the "safe" zone, or anything at all for that matter. I can tell the compressor cycles on eventually but without anything in the system I'm not sure if it's filling up or not. The fill port isn't getting cold and it's a total PITA to shake the can up in the space we're given. I tried pulling the trigger a few times on the can but nothing seems to be coming out even when i press the pin in. Anyone have any ideas?
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Jul 5, 2014 00:20
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Step one is going to be stop messing around with an all in one can and get a set of gauges on it. Hook up a vacuum pump and see how it holds from there.
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Jul 5, 2014 01:21
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bowling 4 buttcoins posted:Anyone have any ideas? Read the first three posts in this thread; throw whatever it is you have now in the trash.
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Jul 5, 2014 04:26
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How important is it to rid my manifold gauge and its hoses of air before measuring/filling? I realized I forgot to do this earlier when recharging On a probably unrelated note, my compressor is still short cycling after topping up my system with r134, and I'm not really sure what's causing it. When the compressor's running the pressures are at ~17 low and ~225 high at 85 degrees ambient. When it cycles off low side climbs up to 40 and high side down to 175; static pressures are right on the mark. The clutch engages right as the low side needle hits 40, and disengages anywhere in the 10-20 psi range, I couldn't discern any correlation between a specific psi and disengagement. Is this indicative of a blockage somewhere? This is a old car (1995 Plymouth Voyager) and not what I drive regularly, so if there is a blockage spending time/money to fix properly is pretty low priority. The AC still blows cold; how bad would it be to just use it as-is for now? Anything other than increased clutch wear that I have to worry about? I also had an old can of r134a+dye with labeling stating it's meant for a liquid fill, and that it should be used upside down. Is that really a thing, or does it just say that so the dye is dispensed properly? Outwardly it looked like a regular 12oz r134 can. At any rate I thought that was stupid so I used it rightside up, and it seemed to charge fine.
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Jul 8, 2014 07:05
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Sounds like it is short cycling by hitting the low pressure cut off, and then switching back on at around 40psi when the low pressure switch closes back up (it has hysteresis). You want to keep as much air/moisture out of the system as possible, which is why it is a good idea to purge the lines.
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Jul 8, 2014 07:34
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2002 Ford Taurus The air conditioner is taking a long time to get cold, and not staying cold. My brother took it to a mechanic. The mechanic told him the air conditioner computer is turning the compressor on and off when it feels like it. He said even if he installed a new computer it would have to be calibrated by the dealer so he said the dealer might as well do it. This car does not have climate control or anything like that. Does this sound right? I've never heard of this kind of thing before.
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Jul 15, 2014 16:09
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Motronic posted:Sounds like where I would start. It's the most likely thing to be clogged. I replaced the TXV, vac'd the lines, and put in most of a 12oz can of r134a...and ended up with the same elevated high side pressure (300-350) and normalish low side (40-50). I think the next step is trying to flush the evaporator and condenser. It seems like it'd be best to remove the condenser and try flushing it while it's flat?
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Jul 15, 2014 16:18
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FogHelmut posted:2002 Ford Taurus It's a mechanic who doesn't know what he's doing, so it's a good thing he declined. In a Ford like this (my Ranger does this too), yes, the ECM is technically controlling the A/C - but it's not actually using any special logic. There's still a pressure switch (or two? I don't recall), the only difference is that it feeds the ECM instead of directly wired in series with the compressor coil. The ONLY thing different about this, is that the computer has the ability to cut the compressor off at WOT. That's it. Otherwise it cycles in the exact same manner as any other A/C, and there's certainly no 'calibration' needed. This is a 12-year-old Ford we're talking about, not a 12-year-old Mercedes or anything modern with some crazy ability to vary cooling loads. The compressor is either fully on or fully off, and is only commanded by the same pressure / temperature switches you'd see on any other car. So, basically, ignore the fuckwit mechanic and go to the third post and start going down the list from there.
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Jul 15, 2014 16:51
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IOwnCalculus posted:It's a mechanic who doesn't know what he's doing, so it's a good thing he declined. In a Ford like this (my Ranger does this too), yes, the ECM is technically controlling the A/C - but it's not actually using any special logic. There's still a pressure switch (or two? I don't recall), the only difference is that it feeds the ECM instead of directly wired in series with the compressor coil. Thanks for confirming what I thought. Assuming the pressures are all correct, my only other idea would be possibly a bad relay as seen here http://www.feoa.net/threads/how-to-fix-97-03-ccrm-relay-box-so-a-c-works.40417/ Any thoughts on that?
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Jul 15, 2014 16:58
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There's a lot more that could be going on. On my Ranger I actually had an intermittent open circuit in the compressor coil - it started off acting like it was undercharged and would even test good on a resistance check. Couldn't diagnose it properly until it was failing more often than not. But yes, if the pressures all check out, then time to check the pressure switches / relays / coil. In my Ranger's case the A/C relay is just another part of the fuseblock, not in a separate CCRM.
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Jul 15, 2014 17:11
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