A/C not Working

[Frankkube]

Got a 94' Eddie Bauer with 130K and the A/C just recently failed. Went to Ford and they won't even diagnose the problem telling me it would probably be 2000.00 bucks and that I should consider a new car. Can you believe that? Anyhow, wondering if anyone with a similiar year/mileage had an A/C problem and what the outcome was? I would rather spend 2000.00 on a lift! Thanks

 

[EliteConcept]

welcome to the NO A/C club. hehehe
but i'd maybe check if theres a way you can check your condenser...maybe your just out of R-13a coolant....

the 94 i believe had the new coolant which you can buy at wal-mart and refill yourself.. prior to 94 they had r-12 which is hard to find now a days. It should say somewhere under your engine, if you know where the A/C components are it will say on or around them.

You should know what kind you have/need and start there...also fill us in with more info about the problem

 

[Frankkube]

How difficult is it to re-fill the system? Do I need special tools? From what I understand, if it's outta R-13, that means there is a leak, being it's a sealed system.

 

[EliteConcept]

not necessarily. I mean the truck is 9 years old, there is a chance the R-13 just got used over the years.

I am not fimiliar with the process of refilling A/C since i have a 92 with the older stuff in it.. but i don't its too hard the kit at wal-mart should tell you everything to do, and come with all the necessary tools....

 

[Bruce Rock]

My wife's got the same year with 10 or 20 thousand more miles on it. The air was out when her brother gave it to her.

I took it to a shop for an air conditioning special. It held a vaccum OK so they added more R134a. They couldn't detect a leak with an electronic detector (R134a as I understand it is harder to detect than R12). Two weeks later when I needed air, all it blew was hot. I took it back to the garage and to make a long story short, he showed me a orfice tube full of black gunk and metal shavings. He said that's what mine most likely looked like and that I needed a new compressor and the entire system cleaned out if not replaced.

I pulled the orfice tube myself. NO black gunk, but there was two very small (I could see them with my naked eyes) abnormal cutting wear particles. They could have come from a threaded fittings.

Next, I removed the accumulator. Mine had a neoprene cover around it. When I removed the cover I saw a very small pit. Checking the pit and the neoprene cover with a black light revealed flourescent dye.

I figure what happened when they pulled the vaccumm the neoprene pressed againest the pit sealing it. When they pressurized the system the R134a leaked out over the two week period.

I replaced the accumulator ($50.00) and had a vaccumm pulled on it, to remove moisture, when it was in the shop for an alignment. I'll check this spring if the vaccumm has held and refill if it has.

 

[poconosms1]

take it to a shop and have them charge it and put dye in it. If you charge it your self and air has leak into the system. It won't blow as cold. A shop will create a vacume before charging it.

I have a 92. Had problems for almost two years before I just gave up and replaced the condensor aka compressor. New one on ebay cost $200. $400 at dealer.

 

[TPLYNCH]

$2,000! They're nuts, just want you to spend $$ for new truck/car. Fix may be very simple. As long as the compressor is still in decent shape, you should be fine. The evaporators do have a tendency to rust out, so if you can find one for a decent price, it may be worth replacing. Definitely WILL NOT cost you $2K!

 

[Dre]

First off.... check your low presure switch. Jump connectors on the switch and see if it works. Might be just the switch. If it works after you jump the switch but blows only warm or hot air then you're low on coolant. 94 should have R134a freon in the system. No biggie. Buy a can and add. If there is a leak your system will stop working again soon. At that time you should fill it with a die and see where it leaks.

Check electricals first. Low presure switch first.
Good luck!

 

[Deak]

Frank...
I would complain to ford. And it's sort of confusing it's hard (for as much as they charge) to imagine a dealership turning away work that's not too hard with the right tools. The only thing I can think of is they thought you had R-12 and didn't want to monkey with it. If it's the R-134a stuff and you don't feel confident in working on your X go to a private shop that advertises AC repair, I would say on a worse case situation, would run 700-800. I had an accumulator, 2 fittings replaced and a recharge for 250.00. Also depending on what's wrong and how much longer you are going to keep the X, consider used parts. They should save you some money and I would think you could get a couple of years out of them. Quoting you 2000.00 is a load of bunk

 

[VOATMJ1]

I had my A/C filled under warranty, had no leaks, but my Ford dealer told me that R-134a will evaporate/be used up by the system, unlike the old R-12.

I asked my personnal mechanic and he told that the dealer was right, that R134a WILL evaporate overtime, and need to be filled, even on a closed tight non-leaking system.

I beleve this now, as my X is almost 3 years old, and took a quarter of can of R-134a to fill it, (warranty). I have a '87 Cadillac, I bought new in 1987, and it has the old R-12, and has .NEVER needed a fill in the 16 years that I have owned it, and blows colder faster than my Explorer. My X will get as cold, but not as fast. I was told that R-12 does not evaporate like R-134a. I can really tell the differance between the R-12 vs. the R-134a.

 

[taxx]

I would take it and have it diagnosed. You canbuy a gauge to check the pressure, if its low you can try adding some, but I bet there is a leak. Most likely the accumulator. Easy to change though you should have a shop evacuate the system for you then fill it back up. I have no faith in those cans you buy at the autoparts store to get a full charge.

Best deal is to take it somewhere for a diagnostics, look around. I know here this time of the year they are offering up free diagnostics all over the place.

PS, you can rebuild the whole thing yourself for under $1k.

 

[Frankkube]

Ok, I bought a can of R134 with the gauge and attahed it to the low pressure side, this is the side behind the battery that comes right off the can, The instructions said the fitting would only fit the low pressure valve so I pretty sure I did it right. The gauge read 142, which according to the directions, appears to be nice and full of refridgerant.. Still blowing warm. I noticed during this task that the wheel attached to the serpentine belt directly in front of the compressor (clutch maybe?) was constantly cycling on and off about every five seconds. Should that be cycling so often? I also swapped the relay with a new one just to be sure.

Any ideas? I really appreciate the overwhelming assistance with this.. Frank

 

[GUNnut]

I have the same problem but my clutch unit on the compressor wont turn on at all when the system is on AC. I was told to check the LP switch as it sends a signal to the clutch. Jump it like Dre said I guess. Thats what I plan to do asap since I know the relay is working.

 

[RiverRat]

If the a/c clutch is cycling fast and the ac is not working properly then it usually means the system has a low charge.

 

[Frankkube]

Dre- Where exactly is this low pressure switch?

 

[RiverRat]

the ACCS is usually on the accumulator. Real close to where the low pressure port is.

 

[Dre]

it's right on the accumulator... there is an electrical connector pluged in from the front.... take that connector off and jump the two wires. Usually when the charge is low this switch won't allow clutch on the compressor to kick in. If pressure is OK then I don't really understand why compressor would keep cycling...

 

[cookie]

something positive to report

about fixing the AC problem on my 94 XLT. Before I bought the truck from my son's boss, he'd spent approx. $300-$400 having the AC fixed. I drove it last summer and it worked great everytime. When it turned warm a few weeks ago, it would only blow hot air. I took it to Goodyear Tire and Auto (they'd done the original repair)-they found no leaks but it was a over a pound low on freon. They filled it for FREE!!! Even though it was a year later and I wasn't the one who'd had the original work done, they put it down as warranty work. It was soooo cool to get good news from the repair shop.

 

[poconosms1]

air. I took it to Goodyear Tire and Auto (they'd done the original repair)-they found no leaks but it was a over a pound low on freon.

A pound low in a year with no leak? Bet your a pound low again next year - and then warranty will be up..... Or maybe you have a friendly neighbor helping himself to some free refrigerent.

 

[cookie]

Does the warranty even apply to me since I didn't own the vehicle when they did the repair? I figured that the age and mileage of my X had more to do with the low freon than a noticable leak. But then, I'm a woman and maybe somebody is taking advantage of me!!!