Turning on A/C is putting my check engine light on

[jacksonh18]

I just finished replacing both the heads on my 2000 explorer and all the pushrods and rocker arms and lifters.

Now whenever I turn on my AC I get a check engine light on and my oil pressure gauge intermittently goes to low then flicks higher when the engine revs. So far I replaced the oil gauge switch connected to the block, but it is still happening. I can't read the code because I'm having an electrical problem from shorting out my cigar lighter.

Anyone familiar with this or have suggestions?

 

[bill06447]

Do you have the correct connectors on the correct sensors/switches/plugs? You had a lot of stuff apart, and they are easy to mix up.

Bill

 

[jacksonh18]

Do you have the correct connectors on the correct sensors/switches/plugs? You had a lot of stuff apart, and they are easy to mix up.

Bill

ya, I labeled everything as I took it apart.

 

[bill06447]

I caught your other post about the lighter (sounds like the whole socket needs to be replaced; next time run the inverter directly from the battery). Finding the code will make it much simpler to find the source of the problem, only other thing I can think of, did you pinch a wire/harness? When doing heads on my Mustang I inadvertently squashed a harness behind the PS bracket, gave me a spiked temp gage.

Bill

 

[jacksonh18]

I caught your other post about the lighter (sounds like the whole socket needs to be replaced; next time run the inverter directly from the battery). Finding the code will make it much simpler to find the source of the problem, only other thing I can think of, did you pinch a wire/harness? When doing heads on my Mustang I inadvertently squashed a harness behind the PS bracket, gave me a spiked temp gage.

Bill

no, I was having the oil pressure gauge problem when my heads cracked and the lifters, pushrods, and rocker arms failed. I assumed that having 2 quarts of coolant in my oil caused a pressure problem and the gauge was telling the truth. Now the heads have been replaced and there isn't any coolant in the oil... Ya, I feel pretty stupid for using the power-inverter to the cig lighter, but I'm not getting power to the wires plugging into the lighter receptacle.

Weird thing is that when my AC is off I'm not having any problems.

 

[koda2000]

if you drove around with 2 qts of coolant in the oil you could have ruined your crankshaft bearings. i'd put a real oil pressure gauge on it to see if you have adequate oil pressure (rule of thumb is 10 psi per 1000 rpm). it is odd that the symptoms only arise when the A/C is on.

as far as you lighter, if you can't find the wiring problem (and assuming you've checked fuse 17) you could just run a fused wire from the battery directly to the lighter. i don't understand using a power inverter. 12V DC is 12V DC, what does an inverter have to do with anything? isn't that for converting DC to AC? oh i see, that's what ruined your lighter socket to begin with.